Forgotten Edward Cullen's Storyline Sounds Perfect For New Twilight Animated Series

Summary

• While some Twilighters reacted with disappointment to the news that the upcoming vampire series will be animated, the format actually offers many opportunities.
• For example, the movie saga left out many details from Stephenie Meyer's original Twilight Saga that would look great in animated form.
• In particular, the backstory of the male lead, Edward, cries out to be adapted as a noir crime story.

When it was announced that Lionsgate Television's upcoming Twilight series would be animated, original and new fans of the vampire saga received the news with mixed feelings.

On the one hand, a live-action adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's beloved novel series would provide new, relatable faces and couples to drool over. On the other hand, an animated series means almost no limits to the creators' imagination, the chance to fix all the flaws of the film series, and the opportunity to dive deep into all aspects of the original books.

Source Material

Stephenie Meyer's series consists of four main novels, two companion books, and one novella. Naturally, this is a vast source of facts, details, characters, and backstories, some of which were inevitably left out of the big screen adaptation, but could find their way into the animated series.

For example, how much do we know about the main vampire family of the story, the Cullens? Aside from their vegetarian status and the tales of transformation told in passing, the movie series doesn't give much screen time to the characters, who have all lived long, twisted lives.

In particular, the male lead, Edward, was deprived of the backstory that gave him much-needed depth. In the books, the 104-year-old protagonist went through a very intense and somewhat dark period not long after his transformation. It's this period that led to his character development and made readers fall in love with him in the first place.

Edward's Backstory

Moviegoers know that Edward was turned into a vampire by Carlisle Cullen, who became his adoptive father. The teenager was 17 years old at the time and dying of the Spanish flu that ravaged the world in 1918.

Carlisle and other Cullens took care of the new vampire and taught him the ways of normal life among people. But there was a time when Edward succumbed to his dark, monstrous nature.

In 1927, the young man left the Cullens to hunt and feed on humans. But he didn't go completely feral. A strong telepath and righteous by nature, Edward set out on a mission to track down evildoers, criminals, terrorists, and murderers. Only when he knew for sure that the person was a monster would he kill him and drink his blood.

For Edward, it was a time of growth, coming to terms with his predatory nature and the dark side of human life. Eventually, after 4 years of such noble but somewhat ruinous hunting in the concrete jungle, Edward accepted the way of the Cullens and returned to the family.

Opportunities

While this backstory was left out of the movie saga to give more screen time to the events of the present, the new series, with its longer running time and the wonders of animation, has a perfect opportunity to adapt it.

Just imagine how great the story of a young vampire hunting evil in 1920-1930s America would look in a noir detective genre. Hell, we would even watch an entire spinoff about it. Let's hope the showmakers don't miss this opportunity.