It is certainly the case that, before Edward Cullen came along, Robert Pattinson was only really known to diehard Harry Potter fans as a bit-part player. It was, unarguably, Twilight that turned the young actor into a household name overnight, as he took on the male lead role in the cinematic adaptation of the vampiric romance that had taken the young adult literary scene by storm. His contribution to the vampire-human-werewolf love triangle created by Stephenie Meyer in her story, and realized onscreen by director Catherine Hardwicke helped turn a movie into a five-film, billion dollar franchise – and the rest is Hollywood history.
So, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Robert Pattinson might be open to re-visiting the character that handed him his career on a plate – and he’s now mentioned as much in an interview with Yahoo! Movies, during which he was promoting his latest film, The Lost City Of Z.
“I’m always kind of curious. Anything where there’s a mass audience — or seemingly an audience for it — I always like the idea of subverting people’s expectations. There could be some radical ways of doing it, which could be quite fun. It’s always difficult when there’s no source material.”
Pattinson’s referral to a lack of source material is interesting because, one of the main reasons that there’s ongoing speculation about an expansion of the Twilight franchise is the novel manuscript written by Stephenie Meyer, titled Midnight Sun. This story takes the well known tale of Twilight – which is told from the perspective of human woman Bella (played in the films by Kristen Stewart) – and tells it from the perspective of Edward (Pattinson’s character). The manuscript was leaked online before it was finished, and Meyer subsequently distanced herself from the idea of concluding that part of the project.
So source material – albeit unfinished source material – does exist, but ironically perhaps represents the least interesting of options available to anyone seeking to broaden the Twilight franchise with an Edward-centric spinoff. Edward is a vampire, and is therefore a character with a very long, rich history – as well as being a man who has remained largely unchanged since being ‘sired’ into the vampire life. This means there is very real potential for an Edward Cullen Twilight prequel (avoiding Interview With The Vampire territory, of course) – which would give the right filmmaker the opportunity to introduce a whole new range of characters, and a brand new storyline. Whichever way you look at it, however, an Edward Cullen Twilight movie would be a very lucrative endeavour indeed.
