In an announcement sure to send shockwaves through the Y.A. and “urban fantasy” spheres, author Stephanie Meyer has officially confirmed the release of Midnight Sun, her long-awaited continuation of the vampire romance Twilight series. The novel is a re-telling of the original Twilight, except delivered from the perspective of sparkly vamp Edward Cullen. Or in other words: There was still more money to be mined from this franchise, and Meyer was damned if she was going to let it sit on the table uncollected.
Midnight Sun has been announced for an Aug. 4, 2020 release, and will surely vault to the top of the best-seller list immediately. It’s a project Meyer has apparently been working on for quite a long while since the 2008 release of Breaking Dawn, the final entry in the original series. Midnight Sun, however, was put on hold for some time after an unedited version of the early manuscript was leaked online. Now, it would seem that enough time has passed for Meyer to finish what she started. Publisher Little, Brown Young Readers describes the book’s perspective as a “decidedly dark” one, for what that’s worth, but it will still be under the publisher’s young adult imprint regardless.
For those who never actually read the Twilight novels, and instead consumed the series via the phenomenally successful film series, excitement will likely turn toward the assumption that a Midnight Sun adaptation will be forthcoming. For a series that made an insane $3.4 BILLION worldwide across five films, such an adaptation is a foregone conclusion, even if the response to Midnight Sun is lukewarm. The really interesting question is the following: Who would play Edward Cullen and Bella Swan?
Both Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, the original stars of the series, have since moved on from Twilight-related media, and their advancing age would seem to disqualify them from once again playing high school students in the first book of the series. One would think that this would be a prime opportunity for recasting with fresh-faced up-and-comers, in roles that could theoretically mint new teen heartthrobs. Given that Midnight Sun is meant to be an alternate take on the same events of the first film, an “uncanny valley” version of the characters would almost make sense.
Regardless, expect to see a lot more headlines revolving around Midnight Sun in the near future.