Every few years a film franchise is released and becomes a bonafide sensation. Twilight was definitely in that category, with countless fans becoming obsessed with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, and debating whether or they were Team Jacob or Team Edward. The film franchise started with 2008’s Twilight, and the franchise's lone female director recently explained her big disappointment about the sequels.
The first Twilight movie was helmed by Catherine Hardwicke, whose previous credits include the teen drama Thirteen. But she didn’t return for any of the movie’s secrets, with three other filmmakers coming in for the four movies that followed. Hardwicke recently spoke to ComicBook about the vampiric property, and the one disappointment she felt about the follow-up movies. In her words:
All four movies after me were directed by men and both Divergents and all the Hunger Games. So even though we kind of paved the way, none of the other ones were directed by women. And, of course, Patty Jenkins, of course, Greta Gerwig. A lot of bad ass people came down the door.
There you have it. It looks like after directing Twilight, Hardwicke was hoping the franchise would hire more female directors to take the mantle. But in the end she was the only female filmmaker behind the camera, as all the sequels would be directed by men. What a bummer.
Hardwicke’s comments to ComicBook comes as the there’s been an ongoing conversation about diversity both in front and behind the camera. Most big budget movies are helmed by men, although not all. There have been a few notable exceptions, some of which she mentions in her comments.
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie was a record breaking success earlier this year, and is one of the biggest movies of 2023. Catherine Hardwicke also name-dropped Patty Jenkins, whose original Wonder Woman movie broke new ground thanks to women both in front and behind the camera. But it’s too bad that the Twilight franchise couldn’t hire more female directors after Hardwicke’s original movie kickstarted the whole thing.
Of course, Hardwicke didn’t just call out Twilight for having mostly male directors, as she also references both the Divergent series and the Hunger Games movies. For the latter property, that trend has continued with the prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which just opened in theaters. Hopefully systemic change is coming for the industry sooner rather than later.
As previously mentioned, there’s been a ton of discourse about the role of female directors in Hollywood. Indeed, the Academy Awards have had multiple years where all of the Best Director nominees were male. We’ll just have to see if recent wins like Barbie help to change the way studios find directors for major movie projects.
The original Twilight movie is streaming now on Amazon. Be sure to check out the 2024 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
