The Twilight Saga is expanding, this time with a TV show, and it has a huge advantage over the movies. The fantasy genre has some of the most successful franchises in film history, but it also has some controversial worlds that, while critically panned, were a hit with the audience. Falling into this category is the Twilight Saga, which popularized a different type of vampires.
Based on the novel series by Stephenie Meyer, the Twilight Saga chronicles the complicated romance between mortal teenager Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), from the moment they meet, up until they form a (controversial) family. Despite its many flaws and poor critical reception, the Twilight Saga was a box office hit.
The Twilight Saga continues to be quite popular, and though at the time of writing there are no plans for more movies or even a reboot, this universe with vampires, werewolves, and humans will continue to expand with Midnight Sun, an animated TV series on Netflix.
What Is Midnight Sun – Twilight’s Animated Series Explained
The “Bella and Edward” original book series is formed by Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. Meyer expanded the world of Twilight with the novella The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner and Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, the latter being a gender-swapped version of Twilight.
In 2020, and after delaying the project due to parts of it being leaked online, Meyer published Midnight Sun, also part of the Bella and Edward series. Midnight Sun isn’t a new story, instead being a retelling of Twilight, but now from Edward’s perspective. Thanks to this, Midnight Sun explores moments like what Edward did while Bella slept and his thoughts when he met Bella.
It’s now too late to bring Midnight Sun to life with the original cast of the Twilight Saga, but the novel is being adapted into an animated series over at Netflix. Midnight Sun is technically a remake of Twilight, but with a different narrator, and its animated format will make it easier to adapt the novel’s most unrealistic elements.
Fantasy Has Changed A Lot Since Twilight
Twilight made vampires popular again (not that the interest in them ever died, but vampire stories had slowed down when Twilight arrived), but mostly a different type of vampires. Twilight changed traditional vampires and made them sparkly, superpowered, and more sensitive, which appealed to its target audience, but drew many others away.
Twilight has been endlessly mocked for years, though now it’s on a more lighthearted note as the saga is seen through a much different perspective. Fantasy has changed since Twilight arrived, and there’s now more openness to different versions of classic creatures. In addition to that, with so many streaming services with their own content and more, there’s so much to watch and not enough time.
Streaming has changed how stories are told in both film and TV, and with such a wide variety of content, something like Twilight won’t be as scrutinized now as it was in the pre-streaming era. Twilight dealt with massive amounts of hate and criticism, but Midnight Sun and similar worlds won’t have to go through that anymore.
Midnight Sun Can Bring The Twilight Franchise Back
The Twilight Saga doesn’t need another movie, but Midnight Sun could be what the franchise needs to make a full comeback. As mentioned above, there’s now a lot more tolerance and openness to worlds like Twilight, and after all these years, the audience knows what to expect from the Twilight universe.
Even though Midnight Sun tells a story everyone now knows, those personal parts from Edward’s perspective can add to the franchise and give the audience a better understanding of him and his relationship with Bella. Midnight Sun’s animated format will also attract the attention of a wider audience, who will be curious to see how Twilight can be told with animated characters.