Revamped. For Twilight's 10th anniversary, author Stephenie Meyer rewrote the beloved vampire saga about Edward Cullen and Bella Swan — by swapping their genders.
The main characters of her latest retelling in Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined — 400-plus pages, in fact, of additional content — are Beau (formerly Bella) and Edythe (previously Edward). Meyer's altered work tells the tale of Beau, a mortal teenage boy, who falls in love with a beautiful female vampire named Edythe.
Meyer appeared on Good Morning America on Tuesday, Oct. 6, to discuss her surprise release. "I wanted to do something fun for the 10th anniversary and the publisher wanted like a foreword and I thought, ‘Well, maybe something more interesting,'" the best-selling author dished.
The Arizona-based mom of three told GMA that her decision stemmed from the many questions she received from Twilight fans, who complained that Bella was portrayed as the "typical damsel in distress.” (Indeed, in the final book in the saga, Breaking Dawn, Bella decides to give up her humanity entirely — becoming a vampire in order to be with Edward for eternity.) That same point, Meyer noted, even bugged the author herself.
"It's always bothered me a little bit," she mused. "Because anyone surrounded by superheroes is going to be… in distress. We don’t have the powers. I thought, 'What if we switched it around a bit and see how a boy does,' and, you know, it’s about the same."
While the plot is largely similar, Meyer, 41, did note some key differences. "The further you get in, the more it changes because the personalities get a little bit different," she dished. "But it starts out very similar and really, it really is the same story because it’s just a love story and it doesn’t matter who’s the boy and who’s the girl, it still works out."
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Meyer wrote in the forward that initially, the endeavor was only supposed to be "one or two" chapters. Instead, that project became a 442-page anniversary edition add.
"I wonder if it will change how people look at Bella a little bit, to see her as him," she continued on GMA on Tuesday. "I do feel like it’s really very much the same thing so I guess my hope is that maybe the younger readers will be reintroduced because a lot of my readers, you know, they’re all 10 years older now and so there’s a whole new generation."
Of course, Bella and Edward would be nothing without the monumental success of the film adaptations starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. However, Meyer told fans not to expect the same treatment for Beau and Edythe. "I don’t really see that happening," she said of a Twilight Reimagined film.
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