Up For More Twilight? Edward's Cut Backstory Sets Up a Perfect Prequel
The love story between the vampire Edward Cullen and the human Bella Swan has ended, leaving the fans to want more. And more they could get!
The Twilight Saga was based on the novel series written by Stephanie Meyer, consisting of four romance novels, two companion novels, and one novella. That's an enormous chunk of information on Edward and Bella's story that contains some details inevitably missed in Summit Entertainment's adaptations.
One of such details is Edward Cullen's dark backstory, which was described in the books and could become a perfect prequel to the Twilight Saga. Being 104 years old, Edward has a colorful past. It was his foster father Carlisle Cullen who turned Edward into a vampire, thus saving him from dying from Spanish flu. And though like his father Edward is striving to live a normal life among humans, according to the novels there were moments when he succumbed to his vampire nature.
The adaptations didn't show a time when Edward left his family to live a wild vampire life. Being a strong telepath allowed him to hunt and feed on the blood of criminals, predators, and bad guys. It was happening for about four years between 1927 and 1931 and has become a huge moment for the development of the character. This was ultimately the way for Edward to come to terms with his comparatively new vampire nature (Edward was turned in 1918).
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What a beautiful plot this story would make for a prequel to the popular franchise, right? This could even become a miniseries. And the time frame could give such a magnificent 20s vibe to the whole story. Besides, such prequel could actually benefit the Twilight franchise, criticized for focusing exclusively on the romance between the main characters and showing the Cullens as somewhat vanilla vampires.
The prequel concentrated on a character's struggle with his inhuman nature, showing the unknown dark side of Edward Cullen and his development into the beloved sweetheart from the movies could address this criticism. Another interesting theme would be Edward's confrontation with the Volturi, a coven governing all Twilight vampires.
The prequel could definitely change the perception of the original franchise and, who knows, even bring it a new audience. However, there remains a question of whether Robert Pattinson would be willing to return to the Twilight role he parted with 10 years ago.