Hate Twilight Movies? Their Initial Outline Was So Much Worse
Twilight almost became Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Twilight turns 15 this year, but the movie is by no means outdated.
For millions of viewers, it has become, like Harry Potter, a kind of relaxing therapeutic movie: the characters can handle all the difficulties, and will surely find their happiness.
Even structurally, the movie resembles the adaptations of Rowling's novels – the characters first try to find explanations for a series of strange events, and then fall into the world that only exists in fairytales.
But even here, things are not so simple. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, young Harry becomes a wizard, while Bella remains an ordinary person.
It is much easier for the viewer to study the world of vampires through the prism of human perception.
Well, it turns out that the plot of the Twilight movies was initially a significant reworking of the original source material, destroying everything that viewers fell in love with when they read the books.
Today, Twilight is a teen drama with a vampire twist, but originally, the movie plot was more like a thriller with CIA agents, jet skis, and Bella being an athlete and school star.
The main character was completely different – not at all like Kristen Stewart 's version or the version from Stephenie Meyer's books.
From the very beginning, the viewers were made to understand that Bella was not an ordinary girl, but that she was "special," a trope used constantly in young adult books and movies where the main female character has to be the strongest and smartest Mary Sue.
Moreover, the first version of the script included the tragic death of Charlie, Bella's father, which was supposed to push Bella to become a vampire hunter.
Bella had to kill vampires with a shotgun, which would turn the romantic love story of a vampire and a simple girl into a bloody action. Now that almost makes her a Winchester sibling from Supernatural...
In the end, this scenario fortunately lost out to the one that eventually formed the basis of Twilight and hit the screens in 2008.
The movie was a success: with a budget of $37 million, the movie earned more than $400 million. Naturally, the producers immediately took up the sequel.
The success of the books and later the movies helped Twilight become a major cultural phenomenon in the 2010s.
Now, we are expecting a new TV series based on the iconic franchise.
Even though we don't know whether it is a spinoff or a reboot, Twilight fans have mixed feelings: some are excited for more vampire content, and others believe it's too soon to revive the franchise.