Robert Pattinson’s acting career has diverged far from Twilight in the nearly two decades since the modern-day vampire romance was first released. Yes, you heard that right, it has been 20 years since Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight book hit shelves and had Tumblr in a chokehold. Three years after the book climbed the bestseller lists, Robert Pattinson starred in the book-to-screen adaptation as the sparkling, yet sensitive vampire Edward. Many movies and years later, Twilight still remains one of the Mickey 17 actor’s most well-known films, and there’s one thing about the series that shocks him to this day.
In the years since the Twilight Saga ended, Pattinson has become somewhat of an indie darling. He’s recently been doing press for his new film alongside Jennifer Lawrence, Die My Love, which premiered earlier this month on the 2025 movie schedule. But even while promoting a new film, The Devil All The Time actor can’t escape his vampire roots, and he told Extra it still baffles him to hear that there’s still a highly active Twilight fanbase:
That's amazing. I mean, I can't believe the legs, the cultural legs that that movie's had. I mean, it's just mind-blowing to me, but it’s so cool. There's so few things from that period which we still talk about. I get asked about it every single day, which is amazing and, you know, I have such fond memories about the whole thing. I'm just so grateful for it.
Well, it’s good to hear the Remember Me actor no longer resents the somewhat cringeworthy, yet also iconic franchise. Born from the angsty supernatural romance set in Forks, Washington, was a series of pop culture references now deeply ingrained into the internet: Team Edward or Team Jacob? “Where the hell you been loca?” How about “You nick-named my daughter after the Lochness monster?!” And how could I forget about the sparkling Robert Pattinson in a tracksuit “This is the skin of a killer, Bella” meme.
Two decades is a long time for a fandom to not only stay alive, but continue to grow. Seriously, the cultural noise of Twilight has not dimmed one bit thanks to a healthy source of memes. Some of the renewed interest has to do with the Twilight Saga being put on Netflix a couple of years ago. However, the new generation was definitely aware of Twilight’s cultural impact in the 2000s and 2010s, enough to press play.
Twilight also helped set into motion a whole era of peak YA book-to-screen adaptations (Divergent, The Hunger Games, The 5th Wave) and also assisted in the revival of the vampire genre (The Cullens walked so the Salvatores could run). Pattinson and Lawrence said they bonded easily for Die My Love because they had a lot in common, the most obvious being they both starred in two of the biggest YA movie franchises of this century, and will always be recognized for their roles as Edward in Twilight and Katniss in The Hunger Games.
However, not even the girl on fire could match the eternal teenager, with Lawrence admitting she almost didn’t sign on to The Hunger Games because the craze surrounding Twilight was so intense.
Lately, though, the High Life actor admitted his fanbase has seen a shift in demographic: it’s now a lot of guys, which I'm assuming is partially due to the fact that he’s the latest actor to make his mark as the famed DC vigilante Batman.
However, the millennial women and angsty teenage girls are always lurking, and the chances of a Twilight resurgence are high with the announcement of an animated Twilight adaptation from Lionsgate. While it’s still in the early stages, the show is to be based on Meyer's Twilight companion novel Midnight Sun, a retelling of the epic romance saga from Edward’s point of view.
While I would love to potentially see Pattinson return to voice his heartthrob character again, the other Cullens have revealed that Netflix, which picked up the project, is seemingly going in a new casting direction. Seeing as the Damsel actor would like to stay forever young, maybe he doesn’t mind the constant Edward chatter. Good thing, because it doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon.
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