‘Twilight’: Kristen Stewart Originally Thought Doing a Sequel Was ‘Absurd’
Though Kristen Stewart had quite the resume before she was cast in Twilight, the series catapulted her into superstardom. Stewart and her fellow castmates quickly became household names, raking in millions of dollars for their performances. But, while the Twilight Saga changed Stewart’s life, she literally had no idea how big the franchise would become when she accepted the role of Bella Swan.
The Twilight Saga is, of course, based on the books by Stephenie Meyer. Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn were the four books that originally made up the series. Recently, in Summer 2020, Meyer has released a version of Twilight from Edward’s perspective called Midnight Sun. Meyer has also shared that she plans to release two more books in the Twilight universe.
Kristen Stewart had no idea how popular ‘Twilight’ would be when she was cast as Bella Swan
But, despite there being four books in the Twilight franchise, Stewart had no idea that there would be another film to follow the first. In fact, it wasn’t until Stewart attended Comic-Con to do publicity for Twilight that she began to realize just how popular the series was going to be. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Stewart recalled the experience.
Stewart thought the idea of ‘New Moon’ as a sequel was absurd
“When we did Twilight I knew that the fan base was big for the book,” Stewart began. “There was no way of preparing for the response that it had. We went to Comic-Con and there were so many people there like that knew more about the series that I did. That was kind of the first indication that it was gonna be what it was, and the idea of doing a sequel at that point for me was absurd,” the actor began about not realizing how successful the Twilight franchise was going to be.
Capitalizing on the success of the franchise
Of course, there ended up being not just one sequel to the Twilight movie, but four, as the final book, Breaking Dawn, was split into two parts a la Harry Potter. Naturally, Stewart was not expecting this. But, it did put her in a unique position to be really picky about what roles she wanted to take after the Twilight saga ended.
“It was weird for me to all of a sudden to be asked the question like ‘OK well now that we’re here, how do we do this right? How do we capitalize on this?'” Stewart recalled being asked by the media and her representation. “Basically, suddenly, the chance to kind of like kick back and go ‘Well the best experiences I’ve had on any project of any kind of been when you are naturally and instinctively drawn to a person. And there’s something that you’re both thinking about and meditating on that becomes obsessive and compulsive you make a movie,'” The Twilight star shared about how she made the decision about what to do next.
How ‘Twilight’ gave Stewart power in her career
“So I was, at that point, like allowed to pick weird things that nobody believed in because I’d made a big movie once. So yeah it definitely kind of blew my head off,” Stewart revealed about Twilight’s reception. We’re sure Twilight’s success changed Stewart’s life in more ways than one. But, it seems that one of the main things it’s given her is power in her career.
