The latest book series turned movie franchise in the 2000s that just got a newly announced TV show is none other than the Twilight Saga. After the Percy Jackson Disney Plus show and the newly announced Harry Potter series, it’s only natural that Twilight gets the same treatment.
According to the Hollywood reporter, the TV show Twilight is in a very early stage of development, to the point where it doesn’t have a network or even a writer yet. Lionsgate, the studio that owns the rights to the Twilight Saga, is looking for writing talent. Stephenie Meyer, the author of the series, is expected to be involved in the development of the show.
The first Dusk book was published in 2007 and unleashed a wave of paranormal romance in the young adult book world. It followed Bella Swan, a perfectly normal girl who moves to Forks, Washington and meets the mysterious, brooding (and also sparkling) Edward Cullen, who turns out to be a vampire. The series consists of four books adapted into five live-action movies starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner.
Unsurprisingly, this news comes just after Warner Media announced a Harry Potter revival. The two franchises both had passionate, strong fan bases in their heyday, which often clashed despite the books having little in common. It was simply the fact that they were two very popular series that both appealed to young adults at about the same time – and that’s how the battle was born.
While Harry Potter’s popularity has waned in light of author JK Rowling’s views on transgender people, support from Dusk has strangely surged forward, with many reclaiming the vampire romance novels in a meme renaissance. Dusk was criticized at the time and in more recent years for its racist and sexist storytelling styles, and much of the newfound interest in it involves picking apart the more controversial elements while embracing the ludicrous narrative.
Lion’s Gate Also owns the rights to The Hunger Games — the other superduper huge YA phenomenon that immediately followed the Twilight/Harry Potter era. But given that a prequel movie is on the way later this year, it’s unlikely anyone at Lionsgate would want to reboot that series for television.
Since there’s no other developmental news for the Twilight show yet, let the fancasting begin! Personally, I think Timothee Chalamet was just born to play someone who died of the Spanish flu in 1901.