This March, Ashley Greene is launching a new rewatch podcast about the Twilight Saga. The Twilight franchise has been a massive cultural phenomenon since the publication of Stephenie Meyer’s first novel in 2005. The saga follows the blossoming romance between high school student Bella Swan and an impossibly gorgeous vampire named Edward Cullen. The first novel was adapted into a film starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in 2008. After its enormous box office success, which took it to the #8 domestic slot for the entire year, the rest of the novels were adapted into similarly successful film projects. Twilight has so dominated the cultural conversation over the years that even though both Pattinson and Stewart have moved onto other big projects since the final film in 2012, including Pattinson’s upcoming stint as the Caped Crusader in The Batman, they are still frequently asked about their time on Twilight.
The actors who played supporting roles throughout the franchise have had their lives defined by the franchise perhaps even more than the marquee stars. Taylor Lautner is still mentioned in the same sentence as his character Jacob Black more often than not, and the actors who played Edward’s adoptive siblings have had their Twilight characters follow them their entire careers. His group of siblings is made up of two couples, the jock Emmett (Kellan Lutz) with the haughty Rosalie (Nikki Reed) and the reserved Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) with the spunky Alice (Ashley Greene), whose outgoing manner and balletic grace made her a fan favorite.
Per EW, Ashley Greene is harnessing this continued interest in the part Twilight played in her career by launching a rewatch podcast called The Twilight Effect that will be covering all the behind-the-scenes info of the film franchise. She will co-host the 30-episode limited audio series, which is launching its first two episodes on March 15, 2022, with Melanie Howe. In addition to covering the Twilight films and all their ephemera, the co-hosts will be interviewing various cast members from the films, including Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, and Peter Facinelli, who played Edward’s father Carlisle.
This celebrity podcast is following in the footsteps of successful rewatch podcasts, including Office Ladies in which stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey rewatch their landmark NBC sitcom The Office. This is the perfect moment to revisit the vampire series, because Twilight fandom has only grown after Gen Z discovered the series on Netflix (though the films have now moved to Peacock). 2020 also saw the release of the long-awaited Midnight Sun novel, which tells the story of Twilight from Edward’s perspective.
Greene, who has previously had fun with her Twilight notoriety by recreating the infamous vampire baseball scene with Kellan Lutz, is a natural steward for the franchise’s legacy. She has already gathered an exciting group of Twilight stars that will delight Twi-hards across the globe. Whether or not Stewart or Pattinson will want to revisit their early roles in such a way remains to be seen, but considering the way this podcast lines up with Pattinson’s promotional tour for The Batman, fans should keep their fingers crossed.
