While the ending of the Twilight saga was divisive among the franchise’s sizable audience, the upcoming books in the series could salvage this. Although the Twilight books (and the movies adapted from them) were huge successes, the saga was met with plenty of criticism upon release. Some of the negative reviews that the Twilight saga received were little more than potshots at the franchise’s teen fan base but, even among the main fandom, some valid critiques arose.
Whether it was the plot holes in Bella and Charlie’s Twilight relationship or the lack of stakes in the first sequel’s story, there were a lot of fair criticisms leveled at the Twilight movies. However, the biggest problem that viewers had with the Twilight movies was the underwhelming ending of the final installment in the series, Breaking Dawn Part 2. Infamously, Breaking Dawn Part 2 staged a brutal, bloody battle sequence that killed off a slew of heroes and villains alike, only for the movie to then reveal this was all a dream. Fortunately, Stephenie Meyers has two more Twilight books planned, meaning the franchise can fix this mistake.
How Stephenie Meyers’ Future Twilight Plans Could Redeem The Franchise
During a 2020 virtual event, Stephenie Meyers told BooksAMillion that she was busy with original ideas and wants to do something new before writing more Twilight. However, the author did say that she has plots ready for two more Twilight books. Twilight’s original sequel Forever Dawn would have seen the series end after only two installments, but Meyers rewrote the plot to add a pair of sequels between the first and last novels. In 2020, Meyers clarified that there were still another two books set in the world of Twilight that she wanted to write, meaning the author is open to once again expanding the world of the series.
Meyers’ plans for the future of the Twilight franchise could redeem the ending of the original saga, which was a surprisingly tame, uneventful finale to the dramatic series. Although the main characters all got their happy ending, Breaking Dawn Part 2’s ending still left a vocal portion of the fan base disappointed when the finale promised a major battle and failed to deliver on this. Twilight’s best movie adaptation Eclipse changed the source novel’s story so that the adaptation could focus more on dramatic, cinematic action, and Breaking Dawn Part 2’s failure to do the same could be fixed by new Twilight books providing a superior, more fitting ending for the franchise.
Twilight Retellings Slowed The Franchise (But Proved It Still Has An Audience)
Whether it is 2015’s gender-flipped Life and Death or 2020’s Midnight Sun (which was the original Twilight book, but retold from Edward’s POV), Meyers was too busy working on rewriting the original book to move on and tell new Twilight stories. However, while this held up the progress of the franchise, the retellings did also serve a vital purpose. These novels and their financial success proved that there is still an audience for new Twilight books, which wasn’t clear after the critical failure of recent paranormal romances like 2021’s Dracula retelling The Invitation.
Midnight Sun was a bestseller, providing hard proof that a new Twilight movie or television reboot of the franchise could be financially viable. Although the Twilight novels and their movie adaptations originally appealed to teens who are now entering their thirties, the franchise evidently has an enduring appeal that has not been blunted by the passage of time. This is promising news for Meyers’ two upcoming Twilight books, which would likely be successful enough to prompt an adaptation. While Midnight Sun never received a movie (and nor did Life or Death), this was primarily because they were retellings of the original novel and not true Twilight sequels.
A New Twilight Movie Could Totally Change Its Reputation
While getting Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart to come back for a new Twilight movie would be an impressive achievement, recasting them would be out of the question given their cultural impact. Meanwhile, although the resurgence in popularity that the Twilight series enjoyed seems to have waned since 2017–2020, this doesn’t mean that a new Twilight movie would be unable to recapture the appeal of the earlier installments much like Meyers’ retellings recaptured the appeal of her earlier novels. The Twilight saga made a whopping $3.3 billion at the box office, and it is unlikely that any franchise with that much money-making potential has disappeared from the public consciousness.
However, for a new Twilight spinoff to succeed, the project would need to redefine the focus of the series. Meyers already clarified that she will not be rewriting any of the other Twilight novels from Edward’s perspective and the author is right to take this approach, as the clever gimmick could become tiresome with another novel. Instead, a new Twilight reboot would need to focus not on older versions of the existing characters, but on a character who is the same age that Bella, Jacob, and Edward were when the series began. As such, Twilight‘s sequels should redeem Renesmee.
Redeeming Twilight’s Reputation Could Create Another Major Movie Franchise
If the new Twilight novels focus on Renesmee, this could take the complicated legacy of the existing saga and turn it into a fun revival. Rather than diving further into Edward’s dark backstory and making the tragic, overblown elements of the Twilight saga central to the story, a new reboot of the franchise could focus on the young daughter of Bella and Edward specifically to give the series a fresh new perspective. Meyers has already stated that she wants to work on new projects as well, and her next works would have a better chance of succeeding if her name was associated with a fun reboot rather than the Twilight saga’s divisive original ending.
Already, one big-budget adaptation of Meyers’ work sank like a stone and flopped with critics because of Twilight’s ignominious reputation as a humorless series. However, The Host’s failure to recapture Twilight’s success could be viewed as proof that the Twilight saga deserves a more fun-focused, self-aware reboot focused on Renesmee’s story to reignite interest in Meyers’ writing. If the upcoming Twilight novels take this approach, there is no limit to where the world of the series can go in the future and how many franchises its author could create.
