I don’t watch much animation, but I can’t wait to sink my teeth into Netflix’s upcoming Twilight animated series
When a film franchise releases the final installment of its film series, it feels like closing the last page of a book – at least that’s what I felt when I watched the film. Breaking Dawn Part Twothe last film in the series of the Twilight movies. Now, Netflix, the top streaming service, is set to revive the franchise with an animated series based on Stephenie Meyer’s novel Midnight sun.
While the series is still in early stages of development and Netflix has yet to announce an official release date, we already have an idea of what the storyline of the new series will look like. Twilight series will unfold. The animated series will be an adaptation of the 2020 novel Midnight sun by Stephenie Meyer – the author of the Twilight novel series – which retells the events of the first book from the perspective of Edward Cullen, the teenage vampire who falls in love with Bella Swan.
Return to the Twilight production team will be none other than the franchise’s own creator, Stephenie Meyer, who will take on the position of executive producer with Fickle Fish Films’ Meghan Hibbett. The two will be joined by Sinead Daly, who previously wrote for one of Netflix Australia’s best TV shows The Get Down will be an asset in bringing Edward’s story to life.
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart starred as Edward and Bella in the film series, which grossed billions of dollars in box office between 2008 and 2012, but the question of who will next take on the roles in Netflix’s animated series remains unanswered. Regardless of who is selected and how the series is received, I can tell you that I will be binge-watching it on premiere day.
Netflix, you have my undivided attention
I imagine a lot of people will have a lot of questions about Netflix’s upcoming animated series, because while the original films were box office hits, the reviews from critics have been abysmal. As it stands, the first film, Twilight (2008) has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 49%, which is the same as the last installment Breaking Dawn Part Two. Eclipse follows with 46%, then New moon by 28%, and Breaking Dawn section One of them is in last place with 25%, meaning none of them made it to our list of best Netflix movies.
As someone who has not only experienced every film release but also once had a non-stop watch party where I watched all five films in one day (it was lockdown), I will admit that the films are objectively bad, but that’s why I’m obsessed with them. And what will undoubtedly irritate me about the upcoming animated series is the snobbish criticism it will receive, which will be based purely on the canon texts. The Twilight Movies aren’t designed to be moving, thought-provoking images, so why stay angry?
The beauty of the Twilight series is that the whole thing is driven by its failed seriousness, which is the case for many young adult novel adaptations from the early to mid-2010s – just look at films like The Fault in Our Stars (2014) and the Deviant series (2014-2016). Netflix’s attempt at an animated Twilight series could completely crash and burn, and if that happens, I’m ready for it.
