How Kristen Stewart Feels About The Twilight Saga Reaching A New Generation Of Fans Through Netflix

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson as Edward and Bella in Twilight
(Image credit: Summit Entertainment)

The Twilight Saga has shown no signs of fading into the background in the past couple years, as its fandom has not only remained alive but reached a new generation of young fans. In summer of 2020, series author Stephenie Meyer released the followup book Midnight Sun, leading fans to get back into the vampire romance. And in summer of 2021, the entire film series became available on Netflix. The phenomenon has reached a whole new cult classic status these days, and Kristen Stewart has finally been informed of it all. 

The 31-year-old actress is on the awards circuit promoting her film Spencer, in which she portrayed the late Princess Diana. During a recent interview, she was asked about how she felt about the newfound Twilight craze taking place. Her response: 

I saw that it's on Netflix, and I was like, 'Oh, it's on Netflix,' like it was on there while I was looking through. Dude, it's weird because it feels incredibly far away and also still not that far away from me and my time in this film. I don't know, like, on one hand you're like, 'Oh, I'm old, my God, I did this five minutes ago, now it's like 10-year anniversary.' I'm like, wow, I have to go to my high school anniversary already.

While speaking to ET on the heels of winning the Spotlight Award at the Palm Springs Film Festival, the actress seemed mostly unaware that tons of Twilight fans are connecting to the material all over again or being introduced to the series for the first time. she shared that she noticed that the movies were on Netflix, but the idea of the franchise finding a resurgence was a pill the actress had to process in real time as she answered the question. She continued with these words: 

It's rad, I don't know, I haven't really ... that hasn't touched me yet. I can't wait for someone who's 12 or 15 to suddenly think, like, it's like when you're little and you tell your parents how great Jimi Hendrix is or something -- not to say that I'm remotely comparing my life to Jimi Hendrix -- but you know what I mean where they're like, 'Dude, you don't even know, it's like, so sick.' I do, I was in that.

So droves of young fans are not at Kristen Stewart’s door, but trust me girl, there’s an entire section of TikTok devoted to the franchise almost a decade after the series wrapped with Breaking Dawn Part 2. When the movies hit the streaming service back in August, tons of fans took to social media to share that they’d be watching them all weekend and also announced their love for the fandom after years of playing it off. 

The return of Twilight even inspired pop singer Tessa Violet to recreate the famed baseball scene for a music video and even bring along Peter Facinelli, who played Carlisle in the movies. It also helps that Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson’s careers are at an all-time high, between Stewart’s awards-worthy performance and Pattinson’s upcoming superhero debut in The Batman

Unfortunately, the Twilight movies are set to leave Netflix next week on January 16, so take the week to rewatch them one more time. Also, check out what upcoming Netflix movies are coming to streaming here on CinemaBlend. 

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.