Twilight: The Actors Who Almost Played Edward Cullen

Robert Pattinson is best remembered for playing Edward Cullen in Twilight, but the role could have gone to other actors. Let’s take a look.

Twilight boosted the careers of its main actors, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, but fans almost had a different Edward – here’s who almost played this particular vampire. Back in 2005, readers were introduced to a world where vampires, humans, and werewolves coexist in Twilight, written by Stephenie Meyer and the first in what would become a series of four novels. The core of the story was the often controversial relationship between vampire Edward Cullen and human Bella Swan, who ended up becoming a vampire as well.

Not longer after the publishing of the novels, Edward and Bella’s story was adapted to the big screen, with the final book, Breaking Dawn, being split into two films. Twilight found its Bella Swan in Kristen Stewart and its Edward Cullen in Robert Pattinson, both becoming a big media sensation and their careers getting a big push. Fans of the Twilight series would surely have a hard time now picturing someone else as the telepathic vampire, but the role almost went to another actor.

However, before the whole casting process began, Meyer had a different actor in mind when imagining her characters on the big screen, but there were some obstacles that kept him away from the Twilight Saga.

Twilight: Stephenie Meyer Wanted Henry Cavill As Edward Cullen

Stephenie Meyer knew exactly how she wanted Edward Cullen to look, and to her the perfect actor for it was none other than Henry Cavill. Around the time the Twilight film was in development, Cavill was mostly known for his role as Charles Brandon in The Tudors and for playing Albert Mondego in The Count of Monte Cristo (and had some less memorable roles in films like Hellraiser: Hellworld and Stardust), and playing Edward Cullen would have been a completely different experience, but he was never approached by Meyer nor the producers and he was too old already to play a 17-year old. Meyer later lamented that she “lost her perfect Edward” and proposed that he played Carlisle, but again, Cavill never heard from her.

Along with Robert Pattinson there were other three actors who were the finalists for the role of Edward: Ben Barnes, Shiloh Fernandez, and Jackson Rathbone. Ben Barnes is best known for playing Prince Caspian in The Chronicles of Narnia and Dorian Gray in the film of the same name (and funny enough, he also had a role in Stardust); Shiloh Fernandez appeared in the series Jericho, United States of Tara, and the 2013 version of Evil Dead; and Jackson Rathbone ended up being part of the Twilight Saga as a different Cullen as he was cast as Jasper. In the end, Robert Pattinson got the role thanks to the chemistry he had with Kristen Stewart, and the rest is history. Not playing Edward Cullen in the Twilight Saga didn’t hurt Henry Cavill’s career at all, as he went on to play Clark Kent/Superman in DC’s movie universe, which opened a lot of doors for him.