Twilight set for animated reboot
Twilight enthusiasts have a reason to rejoice as Lionsgate is set to broaden the beloved saga through an upcoming animated series. This announcement came from Lionsgate’s Vice Chairman, Michael Burns, during a Morgan Stanley media conference, where he expressed optimism about the series’ potential, stating, “We’re going to go out with the ‘Twilight’ series, an animated series, I think there’ll be a lot of interest in that.”
This news follows reports from Variety last April, which revealed that Lionsgate Television was contemplating a TV series adaptation of Twilight, indicating that the project was in its nascent stages.
The upcoming animated adaptation will draw from Stephanie Meyer’s acclaimed book series. The Twilight saga, included movies starring Robert Pattinson as a vampire and Kristen Stewart as his love interest, catapulted both actors to stardom. The series also included Taylor Lautner, who played a werewolf.
The original book series includes four novels: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. In addition, in 2015, Meyer introduced Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, offering a gender-swapped take on the story’s main characters, Bella and Edward. Another novel, Midnight Sun, was released in 2020, providing Edward’s perspective on the events of the first book, diverging from Bella’s viewpoint.
Known collectively as The Twilight Saga, the film series includes five movies that achieved massive success during their release.
Hang on tight, spider monkey, because the Twilight franchise is returning in a whole new context. On Tuesday, during a Q&A at the Morgan Stanley media conference, Lionsgate Vice Chairman Michael Burns revealed that the rumored Twilight television adaptation is in the works — as an animated series. News of a Twilight TV series has been reported since April of last year, and although many had assumed that the project would be done in live-action, reports indicate that the series was always set to be animated. It is unclear at this point what animation style the Twilight series will take, although it is worth noting that the original book series spawned three manga-inspired graphic novel adaptations.
“We’re going to go out with the Twilight series, an animated series, I think there’ll be a lot of interest in that,” Burns explained.
What Is the Twilight TV Series About?
It is unclear at this point if the Twilight animated series will be a full reboot of Stephanie Meyer’s source material, which was already turned into a five-film saga, or will be an offshoot set within the same universe. Meyer is “expected to be involved in the television adaptation,” which does not currently have a showrunner or any cast and crew announced.
Wyck Godfrey and former Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-president Erik Feig will serve as executive producers on the Twilight series.
Is There a Twilight Sequel?
The latest extension of the Twilight saga arrived in 2020, with the long-awaited publication of Midnight Sun. The novel, which presents the events of Twilight from the point of view of Edward Cullen, was originally conceived by Meyer while writing the original series. After the manuscript for Midnight Sun was leaked online in 2008, Meyer canceled initial plans to release it, reversing her decision years later.
“I didn’t really return to the story—I never actually left it,” Meyer wrote on her website amid Midnight Sun’s release. “I didn’t decide to finish it now, this is just how long it took to write. It was a very slow process. It’s hard to describe how frustrating it is to write a very long book where you can’t create anything new , where everything is already scripted for you and you have no ability to go off that script. When I write, I’m fueled by creation. That’s what pulls me in and pushes me forward. And there wasn’t very much creation in this book. If I would have realized what a challenge it would be, I probably never would have started. Although there have been a lot of stops and restarts over the years, I was never away from the manuscript for very long. Several times I would hit a roadblock and quit to work on something more amicable, but one of the big boosts to the process came from a break. Life and Death, the gender-swapped version of Twilight I wrote for Twilight’s tenth anniversary, was unexpectedly beneficial to the Midnight Sun. Creating that version of the story let me get back to the characters in their purest form, just who they were as people, without any of the baggage from the movies or the fandoms. It made it easier for me to spend time with them again. When I did finally get to a point when I knew I would be able to finish, I worked to get it published as soon as possible. I knew that readers had been waiting for a long time.”
