The Twilight Saga: New Moon includes a very subtle tease to Jacob Black’s big transformation into a werewolf – here’s where you can find it.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon saw Jacob Black transforming into a werewolf for the first time, but before that happened, there was a very subtle tease to his upcoming transformation. In 2005, Stephenie Meyer shared her own version of vampires and werewolves through the novel Twilight, the first entry in a series of four novels centered on the often problematic romance between mortal Bella Swan and vampire Edward Cullen. Together, Bella and Edward came across a variety of obstacles – from other vampire covens to werewolves – but in the end, they got to live the life they wanted.
The Twilight book series was a huge success and quickly built a solid and loyal fanbase, though that doesn’t mean the novels were safe from criticism. Still, it was this success with the audience that made it possible for Meyer to share her stories on the big screen. The Twilight Saga was released between 2008 and 2012, with the final novel, Breaking Dawn, being split into two movies, and if the books were a hit, the movies were an even bigger one, though with that also came a lot of criticism. However, the Twilight Saga staying met its goal of appealing to its target audience and expanding its fanbase, and this was in big part thanks to the writers as true to the books as possible and adding a lot of Easter eggs and pieces of foreshadowing through all the movies.
A good example of a subtle but clever tease in the Twilight movies can be found in the second entry of the saga: New Moon. In it, Edward (Robert Pattinson) and his family moved out of Forks and so he broke up with Bella (Kristen Stewart), all under the excuse of wanting to protect her. The break-up was so sudden that Bella fell into a deep depression, but she gradually went back to normal in big part thanks to Jacob (Taylor Lautner), his best friend. Bella spent a lot of time with Jacob, who fell in love with her, but that bond also ended abruptly when he suddenly cut communication with her. It was later revealed that he distanced himself as he had become a shapeshifter/werewolf and not because he didn’t want to be with her.
Those viewers not familiar with the books were as surprised as Bella was when Jacob turned into a werewolf right in front of her eyes and without classic elements related to these creatures, such as the full moon, but the team behind New Moon actually hid a subtle tease to Jacob’s transformation in plain sight. As noted by Insider, in one of the scenes where Bella and Jacob are fixing old motorcycles together (before he distanced himself), a paw print can be seen on the bottom part of Jacob’s shirt, teasing what was about to happen to young Jacob. His ancestors were also shapeshifters/werewolves but his father wasn’t, this as no vampires were around when he reached manhood, which was the complete opposite to what happened to Jacob and his pack as the Cullens were already living in Forks.
Jacob’s transformation from regular boy to shapeshifter happened too fast from Bella’s (and hence the audience’s) perspective, but the hints to this major event were there – it’s only a matter of paying close attention. The Twilight Saga might not have the best story nor the finest performances, but it did pay a lot of attention to the smallest details.
