The other week, Max (formerly HBO Max) announced that it was making a new TV series based on the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling, which were turned into a series of eight movies between 2001 and 2011. Now, The Hollywood Reporter has it that Lionsgate TV is developing a TV show based on Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight novels, which were themselves turned into a series of five films released between 2008 and 2012. Game on!
Okay, the Harry Potter series and the Twilight series aren’t exactly directly comparable, but they were both parts of the 2000s-era boom in young adult fantasy stories. The book series ended around the same time (2007 for Harry Potter and 2008 for Twilight) as did the movie series. And now they’ve being revived on TV at about the same time. Seems about right.
Twilight, if you weren’t around at the time, is about a romance between a human girl named Bella and a vampire named Edward. And also there are werewolves. The series was loved and derided in about equal measure back in the day, on the one hand by fans who wanted to enjoy their sparkly vampire stories, and on the other by keyboard warriors who seemed to take offense at the pulpier, soppier elements of the books. It was a wild time on the internet. Not like now. Now everything’s calm.
A Twilight TV show is coming
Literally all THR reports is that the Twilight show is in development. We don’t know on what platform it might end up, who could be playing Bella or Edward, or anything, although THR does say that Meyer is expected to be involved. It’s much the same situation with the Harry Potter show on Max, only there they announced it with a little teaser and everything whereas it feels like the Twilight info has gotten out ahead of studio executives’ wishes.
So there’s a chance this could fall apart behind the scenes, but that’s true of anything. We’ll keep an eye out for more.
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