Two seasons, one book. Netflix has committed to a two-season run of Midnight Sun, the adult animated Twilight series that retells Bella and Edward’s first romance from the vampire’s side, according to a report on Lionsgate’s latest investor call.
The disclosure came on November 5, when Lionsgate television chief Kevin Beggs described the size of the order while talking investors through the studio’s plans for the franchise, the report said. Netflix has not published the two-season figure on its own pages. Its official announcement, dated September 4, 2024, only says the show is in development.
The word “adult” is the part that changes the math. Twilight began as a young adult novel in 2005 and its readers have had two decades to grow up. An adult animated label tells you who Netflix and Lionsgate think is paying attention now.
A book that nearly stayed in a drawer
Midnight Sun had a rough road to the shelf, and that history is much of its appeal. Stephenie Meyer stopped work on it in August 2008 after twelve chapters of the unfinished manuscript leaked online. She then posted that partial draft on her own website so readers could see it fairly, and put the project on hold indefinitely.
It took another twelve years. The finished novel arrived on August 4, 2020, ran to 658 pages and sold one million copies in its first week.
That page count explains the two-season shape. Split evenly, the novel gives each season about 329 pages of source material (658 divided by 2), and the story covers the same events as the first Twilight book, which means a single volume has to carry what the live-action films did in one movie. Critics at the time complained about the book’s slow pace, so an unhurried television version will have to find its tension somewhere other than the plot.
Who is making it
Netflix’s announcement names Meyer as an executive producer through her company Fickle Fish Films, with her partner Meghan Hibbett, Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen of Temple Hill Entertainment, and Erik Feig and Samie Kim Falvey of Picturestart. Sinead Daly, a writer on Raised by Wolves and Tell Me Lies, will write the series and executive produce it.
Reports since then have named Daly as showrunner and Lynn Wang as supervising director. No voice cast has been confirmed, so anyone naming an Edward or a Bella right now is guessing.
Why two seasons at once matters
Streaming services usually pay for one season, read the viewing numbers, then decide. Animation makes that habit expensive, because a season can take years to finish and a crew that disperses while waiting for a renewal is hard to reassemble. An upfront pair of seasons lets the work roll straight through.
Lionsgate has obvious reasons to want that continuity. The five live-action films, starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, built what Netflix calls a multi-billion franchise.
What to watch for next
Netflix has given no premiere date. One report says production was penciled in for August 2026 to May 2027, with Los Angeles as the voice-recording hub, which would put a debut in late 2027 at the very earliest and more likely 2028. Voice casting is the next announcement to look for, and the two leads will be the first real test of whether this audience is willing to hear anyone but the original pair.
Further reading
Image: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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