‘Twilight’ is the newest franchise to fall victim to a TV reboot – and fans are praying that “this is a joke”

The Twilight franchise reportedly has a TV show in the works and will be adapting Stephanie Meyer’s best-selling book series via Lionsgate. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the adaptation is still very much “in its infancy” and doesn’t even have a writer or network for the series yet. 

Perhaps a silver lining is that author Meyer is said to be involved in the series in some way. But Twilight fans – or Twihards as the fandom is known – are not pleased with the news at all. It seems as though every franchise is in its reboot era suddenly, with Warner Bros. announcing a Harry Potter TV series, new Lord of the Rings movies in the works, and a spin-off of The Big Bang Theory.

Twilight was initially adapted into a five-film franchise starring heartthrob Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen and Kristen Stewart as the iconic Bella Swan. It began in 2008 and ended in 2012, racking in roughly £2.7 billion worldwide, as well as a cult of dedicated fans. It seems these fans are still Twihards to the original cast as well, as they took to the internet with a flurry of opinions about the reboot.

“If you ignore the Twilight reboot it doesn’t exist,” says one. “The Twilight reboot will NEVER be able to properly recreate “BELLA WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN LOCA” so they should just quit now,” says another. Many are also coining the on and off-screen chemistry of Pattinson and Stewart as the glue that held the franchise together, stating “These two and their chemistry made Twilight a success… good luck with the reboot.”

Granted, the reaction to the news is one of overwhelming disappointment, but there are still some fans excited to see it get a modern makeover. Cast predictions and plot spin-offs are being helmed the saving grace to the reboot, including fans saying they will watch “if they deep dive into Alice’s story.” Essentially, however, the lightning-in-a-bottle success of Twilight will be a hard feat to recreate, and we wait in anticipation of what could possibly happen in this reboot. Will it follow Edward and Bella’s baby Renesmee through her life? Will we finally get to see Alice and Jasper’s love story in all its glory? Only time will tell.