Twilight characters swap genders for novel’s 10th anniversary

TWILIGHT’S girl-meets-boy vampire romance has been re-imagined, gender-swapping the original protagonists in a new book.

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in a scene from 2009 film The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

TWILIGHT’S girl-meets-boy vampire romance has been re-imagined, gender-swapping the original protagonists in a new book.

Written by author Stephanie Meyer for the series’ 10th anniversary, Bella Swan’s (played by Kristen Stewart in the film adaptations) character is now a male named Beau and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) is a female named Edythe in the 442-page novel, titled Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined.

Meanwhile, werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) has become Julie in the new version of the story.

“I wanted to do something fun for the 10th anniversary,” Meyer told Good Morning America.

“It’s always bothered me a little bit 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.”

Meyer added: “The further you get in, the more it changes because the personalities get a little bit different, 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.”

Meyer’s Twilight series (of which there are four books in total) have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide. The five films in The Twilight Saga grossed a cumulative $4.6 billion worldwide.

But the author admitted she doesn’t envision a big screen adaptation of Twilight Reimagined. “I don’t really see that happening and a lot of the people I’d put in it would be like Grace Kelly so it’s a little too late for some of my first choices,” she said.

Actor Taylor Lautner in a scene from film The Twilight Saga: New Moon.