Sofia Coppola didn’t direct Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 over this “weird” thing

Sparkly vampires, werewolves, and a love triangle were at the heart of the Twilight franchise, but one specific plot element of the original books and movie had Priscilla director Sofia Coppola saying “no” to directing the last installment.

There’s no denying that by 2008, Hollywood struck a goldmine capitalizing on the teen sensation of vampires, werewolves, and the supernatural. Stephenie Meyers’s Twilight book series was the first successful on-screen adaptation that skyrocketed into a global fandom and franchise.

Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) moves to the rainy town of Forks, Washington to live with her father. Unknown to her, she would land at the center of the supernatural. She soon meets the inexplicably handsome Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and his family. The perfect family are actually vampires, and Bella’s childhood friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) comes from a werewolf tribe.

The Twilight book series had a total of five continuous books. All adapted for the big screen. By Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2, a lot of relationships had changed, and even had Sofia Coppola backing away from directing it.

Jacob finds his soulmate in Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2

Sofia Coppola admitted she didn’t direct the last Twilight movie because of Jacob’s imprint on Bella and Edward’s newborn baby, Renesmee.

At the end of Part 1, Bella is dying from giving birth and Edward tries to save her by giving her his venom. The movie ends with her newfound awakening as a vampire. In Part 2, there’s a problem. Jacob’s tribe made it very clear that they would have to kill the baby because it broke their treaty. The baby was born from a human Bella and could be part vampire.

But as Jacob goes to kill Renesmee, he looks into the baby’s eyes and imprints on her. Let’s explain this part a bit. In Twilight, werewolves imprint on anyone, regardless of age. Once locking eyes with their soulmate, they see their entire lives together and the love they will share. At that time, another member of Jacob’s tribe had also imprinted on a little girl. In this case, Jacob imprinted on a newborn. The concept, at the time, was not well received by non-book fans.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Coppola thought the same thing. “I thought the whole imprinting-werewolf thing was weird. The baby. Too weird!” said the director. “But part of the earlier Twilight could be done in an interesting way. I thought it’d be fun to do a teen-vampire romance, but the last one gets really far out.”

Fans can’t forget how angered Bella became when she realized Jacob imprinted on her baby daughter and nicknamed her after the Loch Ness monster. Like Quil Ateara V (Tyson Houseman) and his imprint, Jacob acted as a brotherly figure to Renesmee, until she became old enough. But as Renesmee had vampire genes, she grew into adulthood at a faster rate. Also due to her powers, she understood Jacob’s relationship with her.

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