Why Robert Pattinson And Kristen Stewart Are Still Defined By ‘Twilight’

Both actors have given strong performances in plenty of acclaimed films in the eight years since Breaking Dawn part 2 opened theatrically. But the vast majority of general moviegoers have never bothered to see them.

It was first thought on August 22, 2013 upon hearing that Warner Bros. had snagged Ben Affleck to play Batman in what would become Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman. “Folks will likely be more agreeable to the idea of then then-41-year-old Affleck playing the Dark Knight than they would have been a decade earlier.” While Affleck had become (fairly or not) a figure of tabloid mockery due to high-profile artistic (Daredevil) and commercial (Gigi) misses, he had spent the last several years reasserting himself as a dependable actor (Hollywoodland) and an accomplished director (The Town). I was wrong. The Internet inexplicably reacted as if Affleck’s post-Surviving Christmas career had never happened. Never mind the Best Picture-winning Argo or the acclaimed/successful The Town, he was still the Kevin Smith-friendly Armageddon/Good Will Hunting guy who blew it as Daredevil and had a fling with Jennifer Lopez.

I bring this up not to expound upon Affleck returning to the role in Andy Muschietti’s The Flash. Short version – The Way Back and Live By Night, quality notwithstanding, bombed theatrically. Affleck has presumably been promised that he’ll only be an actor for hire rather than retroactively being expected to shoulder an entire cinematic universe. But it comes to mind as we see the equally frustrating notion of our newest Batman, Robert Pattinson, still being haunted by his most famous role. The Twilight Saga ended eight years ago. Since that vampire romance series ended, he has made 13 feature films, including NetflixNFLX -0.6%’s Devil all the Time debuting next month and Chris Nolan’s Tenet opening overseas this week. And yet, despite solid reviews for movies during and after The Twilight Saga, he is still defined among general moviegoers as Edward Cullen.Both actors have given strong performances in plenty of acclaimed films in the eight years since Breaking Dawn part 2 opened theatrically. But the vast majority of general moviegoers have never bothered to see them.

It was first thought on August 22, 2013 upon hearing that Warner Bros. had snagged Ben Affleck to play Batman in what would become Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman. “Folks will likely be more agreeable to the idea of then then-41-year-old Affleck playing the Dark Knight than they would have been a decade earlier.” While Affleck had become (fairly or not) a figure of tabloid mockery due to high-profile artistic (Daredevil) and commercial (Gigi) misses, he had spent the last several years reasserting himself as a dependable actor (Hollywoodland) and an accomplished director (The Town). I was wrong. The Internet inexplicably reacted as if Affleck’s post-Surviving Christmas career had never happened. Never mind the Best Picture-winning Argo or the acclaimed/successful The Town, he was still the Kevin Smith-friendly Armageddon/Good Will Hunting guy who blew it as Daredevil and had a fling with Jennifer Lopez.

I bring this up not to expound upon Affleck returning to the role in Andy Muschietti’s The Flash. Short version – The Way Back and Live By Night, quality notwithstanding, bombed theatrically. Affleck has presumably been promised that he’ll only be an actor for hire rather than retroactively being expected to shoulder an entire cinematic universe. But it comes to mind as we see the equally frustrating notion of our newest Batman, Robert Pattinson, still being haunted by his most famous role. The Twilight Saga ended eight years ago. Since that vampire romance series ended, he has made 13 feature films, including NetflixNFLX -0.6%’s Devil all the Time debuting next month and Chris Nolan’s Tenet opening overseas this week. And yet, despite solid reviews for movies during and after The Twilight Saga, he is still defined among general moviegoers as Edward Cullen.The 2-D franchise is still held in low esteem despite being a top-tier commercial success, grossing $3.317 billion worldwide on a combined budget of $419 million. Despite/because of the franchise’s popularity with the target demographics, it remains a point of mockery, although to be fair, the notion of Edward the sparkly vampire now playing Bruce the angry bat (man) is probably too easy of a joke to be avoided. Twilight proved that fantasy franchise movies aimed at women could earn just as much as those targeted at men, which in turn led to a “Who let girls into the fandom boys club?” reaction. The amount of digital ink spent dissecting the perils of its success, as opposed to the sometimes-female-fronted YA actioners like Hunger Games, Maze Runner, The Giver and Divergent that positioned Hillary Clinton lookalikes as the villains, left a massive footprint.