‘Twilight’ TV Show: 9 Possible Plots and Storylines

The Twilight renaissance is in full swing. More than a decade after The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 hit theaters, ending what became a years-long cultural phenomena that pinned Team Edward against Team Jacob, reports surfaced on April 19 that Lionsgate Pictures is developing a new Twilight TV series, leaving many Twihards wondering what Lionsgate’s Twilight series could be about?

The proposed series is said to be in “early development” at Lionsgate with Wyck Godfrey and Erik Feig attached as executive producers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Meyers is also expected to be involved in any potential series. It does not yet have a network, with Lionsgate planning to lead the development on the project before shopping the rights to the package. Sinead Daly is attached to write the script for Twilight. Sources told THR that “Daly is working with Lionsgate TV to determine what the specific take on Twilight will be and if it will be a remake of Meyer’s books or a different offshoot.”

The series will come on the heels of the film franchise, collectively known as The Twilight Saga, which was comprised of five films and was released between 2008 and 2012 and starred Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone, Nikki Reed, and Kellan Lutz. The films were an adaptation of Meyers’ four books – Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn –that were published between 2005 and 2008 and chronicled the love story of teenage human Bella and forever teenager Edward, a vampire. After Bell, portrayed in the films by Stewart, moved to Forks, Washington, she fell “unconditionally and irrevocably” in love with Edward, but their relationship faces challenges not only from other supernatural forces but also from a love triangle including Jacob Black.

Although it will likely be some time before further details emerge regarding the series, with THR reporting that there is “not yet a timeline for when the Twilight series will be taken out to potential buyers,” fans are clamoring for more details, specifically potential plots and storylines. Keep scrolling to see PopCulture.com’s theories on the Twilight series.

Direct Adaptation

The most obvious, and most likely, scenario is that the upcoming series will be a direct adaptation of the books, just like the film franchise. If the series goes this route, it could follow a similar format as the films, with each season drawing source material from each of Meyer’s books. There would be potential for a slight difference in this format, as Breaking Dawn was split into two parts for the film franchise – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (2011) and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012).

Sequel

It’s been a questioned asked, theorized, and imagined in fanfics: what happened after the events of Breaking Dawn? A Twilight series could possibly aim to answer that question by picking up after Meyers’ fourth Twilight book, which not only saw Bella become a vampire, but also the birth of her and Edward’s daughter, Renesmee.

The Breaking Dawn book does seek to offer a more definitive ending, explaining that Bella and Edward, as well as Jacob and Renesmee, go on to live happily ever. Meanwhile, Bella’s father, Charlie, falls in love with Sue Clearwater. As for the wolfpack? They split and co-exist happily. Similarly, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 concluded with Bella and Edward in their meadow, Bella having learned to lift her shield to allow Edward to read her thoughts, suggesting an all-around happy ending for the characters. However, not much else is explained other than a brief tying up of loose ends. Fans are left wondering if and when the Volturi return and just more generally, further details of the years that followed the confrontation with the Volturi.

Prequel

The opposite of a sequel picking up after the events of Breaking Dawn, the upcoming series could instead act as a prequel to the novels, something fans have long been interested in. This particular plot isn’t much of a stretch to consider, either. Meyer in 2011 released The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide. An encyclopedia of sorts acting as a companion to the book series, the guide not only includes nearly 100 full-color illustrations but also gives more insights into the various characters that appear throughout the books, even delving deeper into their backstories and how they came to be vampires.

Of course, most interesting to this potential plot would be the individual backstories of each member of the Cullen family. Carlisle, for example, is the oldest of the Cullens, having been born in the mid-1600s in London. His father and other pastors hunted various supernatural creatures, including vampires, and after following in his father’s footsteps, Carlisle was bitten. He spent some time with the Volturi before he turned Edward in 1918, marking the start of what would eventually become the larger Cullen family. A Twilight series could potentially focus on Carlisle’s history alone, beginning n 1660 London and chronicling his life up to and after he was bitten. The series could end just as the Cullens arrive in Forks, a perfect ending that would lead directly into the film adaptation of Meyers’ books.

A prequel series could also take on the format of an anthology series, with each episode or season focusing on one character in particular. In addition to Carlisle’s story, it is known that after being turned by Carlisle, Edward went on a bit of a vigilante journey, feeding on humans he deemed morally reprehensible, his first victim being Esme’s abusive ex-husband. Esme, meanwhile, was the next to be turned, Carlisle biting her and committing her to a life of immortality in 1921 after she attempted suicide after the loss of her child. Prior to her change, Esme had met Carlisle years earlier in Columbus, Ohio in 1918. Rosalie Hale was the third person Carlisle changed after she was brutally assaulted by her fiancé and his friends in Rochester, New York in 1933. Prior to her change, Rosalie came from an affluent family and was constantly praised for her beauty. After she was bitten, she took revenge on her attackers, killing them one by one but never spilling a drop of their blood. Although he vowed to never change a human again after Rosalie resented being a vampire, Carlisle changed Emmett just a few years later after Rosalie found him outside of Knoxville, Tennessee after he was attacked by a bear.

Alice and Jasper joined the Cullens years later. Although Alice cannot remember her human life, the Illustrated Guide revealed that due to her premonitions, including one in which her father murdered her mother, she was eventually committed to a mental asylum. It was there that she befriended a vampire who worked there. She was changed after James caught her scent and intended to kill her. She later found Jasper, one of the few surviving vampires of the Southern vampire wars.

The Illustrated Guide also delves into the backstories of the other vampires. Fans have long wished for spinoffs focused on the individual characters and their backstories, and this particular plot would work well as an anthology. The characters’ backstories are something the films only barely glossed over, and something that could provide more depth to the franchise as a whole, offering some clarity as to why the characters are the way that they are.

The Quiluetes

Rather than focusing mostly on the vampires of Twilight, a series could opt to focus on another supernatural being in the franchise: the Quiluete wolf pack, which Jacon belongs to. Similar to the vampires, the wolf pack would be more than capable of carrying their own story, which could be filled with history and lore and delve deeper into their history with the vampires, including the Cullens and the truce made in the 1900s. A series focused on the Quiluetes would also provide the opportunity to further explore all the things that come with being a shapeshifter: heightened rage, thought sharing, and perhaps most controversial, imprinting.

While it seems most likely that any Twilight series will focus on vampires, a series focused on the Quiluetes is entirely plausible. In fact, back in 2012, reports surfaced that Lionsgate and Summit were eyeing a spinoff, and the Quiluete wold pack was said to be “one area of interest.”

The Volturi

Alternatively, the upcoming series could focus on the Volturi, the largest and most powerful coven of vampires that enforce the laws of the vampire world. Similar to royalty in the vampire world, the Volturi consists of five core members: Aro, Caius, Marcus, Sulpicia, and Athenodora. The group also consists of the “Volturi Guard,” prominent members including Chelsea, Jane, and Alec.

Mainly tasked with the goal of keeping vampirism hidden from humans, the Volturi are a menacing force that has existed for over 3000 years, originating in Greece before eventually relocating to Volterra, Italy. Throughout its 25 centuries of existence, the Volturi has outlawed the creation of immortal children and cleaned up after the so-called Vampire War of the 1800s.

A series centered around the Volturi wouldn’t necessarily mean that the main characters at the center of Meyer’s books wouldn’t be involved. In fact, it would be extremely likely that the Cullens would eventually make an appearance (Carlisle did spend some time with the Volturi in the early 1700s, and the Volturi has a long-standing interest in Edward and Alice due to their abilities).

‘Life and Death’

Outside of the four main novels at the heart of Twilight, Meyer has also written several other books within the Twilight universe, one of those being Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined. Released in 2015, the book is essentially the same story as Twilight, but is instead a gender-swapped retelling centered around Beau Swan (Bella in the original books) and Edythe Cullen (Edward in the original books). Deciding to draw from Life and Death rather than opting for a direct adaption of Twilight would offer a fresh twist to the franchise.

‘Midnight Sun’

While the Twilight films are mostly told from Bella’s perspective, Meyer offered fans a different point of view when she released Midnight Sun in 2020. A companion novel to Twilight, the book is told from the perspective of Edward, giving fans a completely different view of the events of the book, as well as scenes not previously known in Twilight, and even more insight into the relationships between the Cullen family members.

The upcoming Twilight series could choose to focus the series around Edwards more so than Bella. Doing this would allow the show to better explore not only Edward’s conflicted feelings about his love for Bella and also being a vampire, but also the Cullen family as a whole and what life truly looks like for a vampire family masking as humans.

‘The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner’

While the Cullens, Bella, and the Quiluete are at the heart of the Twilight franchise, there is one other character that left an impact on the story: Bree Tanner. A minor character in the larger scope of things, Bree was just a teenager when she was turned into a vampire to join Victoria’s newborn army, which was tasked with fighting the Cullens after they killed her mate James. While most of the other newborns created by Victoria remained nameless, Bree stood out among the rest, (spoiler alert!) even surrendering to the Cullens before ultimately being killed by the Volturi.

Bree not only appeared in Eclipse, the third book and also the third movie in the franchise, but was the protagonist in The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, a novella in the Twilight series that was published in 2010. The novella tracks Bree’s life as a newborn vampire during its earliest days and details what happened in the lead up to the fight with the Cullens that wasn’t previously recounted in the previous books.

Although it’s unlikely that an entire seasons-long series could be pulled from The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, it would be interesting to see a more thorough storyline, or even a bottle episode, surrounding the character, giving more depth to the innocent humans who were created by Victoria for the sole purpose of fighting the Cullens.

New ‘Twilight’ Books

It’s also completely possible that the series will take a completely different route altogether. Back in 2021, Meyer told USA Today that she had two more books planned in her Twilight series.

“There are two more books I think in the world that I want to write,” Meyer said. “I have got them outlined and a chapter written I think of the first one, so I know it’s there. I am not ready to do that right now, I want to do something brand new. For me, a lot of the joy of writing comes from creating and I really want to do a new world and new rules and new mythology. Mythology is kind of my thing.”

Little more news has come regarding those books since then, so it’s unclear if they would continue to center on Bella and Edwards, different but established characters within the book series, or all-new characters and plots.