Everyone’s teenage crush and wearer of an unfortunate wig for the first part of the Twilight movies, Taylor Lautner is #TeamJacob for life.
In case you’re a Martian who just landed on Earth, and somehow managed to find yourself on this side of the Internet in between exploring and planning a takeover of the planet, then here’s what you need to know about one of the most contentious books and movie series in pop culture. Twilight was a beloved franchise created by Stephanie Meyers in the early 2000s that followed human teenager Bella Swan as she moves to a town where vampires and werewolves exist and somehow finds herself in a skewed love triangle between vampire Edward and werewolf Jacob.
The movie series, starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Lautner, launched all three leads into superstardom instantly, despite facing criticism for being absolutely ridiculous (and unforgivably bad most of the time).
The series has seen a resurgence in interest recently, with fans appreciating it for being high camp, leading many fans to wonder if there would ever be a reboot of the series.
While (thankfully) there has been no news of the Twilight series being remade on the horizon (why mess with perfection?) or a new instalment, we might get at least one of the OG three to reprise their role in the series.
In a recent interview with E! News, the actor revealed that he would not be opposed to playing the role of the werewolf who was in competition for Bella’s heart, sadly losing out to the mysterious and rich vampire Edward.
“He’s a good character that is easy to love, so I would never say no to that. Because it’s Jacob Black. He’s a lovable guy,” said Lautner.
When we left the good supernatural people of Forks, Edward and Bella were ready to start their happily ever after with their (demonic) daughter Renesmee. The same baby who had been imprinted on by, a much (much) older Jacob, who was previously heartbroken about Bella (Renesmee’s mom, let us reiterate) marrying Edward.
In case your memory needs some jogging, here’s (inarguably) one of the best/worst scenes in the series:
Lautner doesn’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with a grown werewolf having a half-vampire half-human baby as a soulmate because he believes Jacob and Renesmee are “happy somewhere”.
In the interview, he shared his theory on what happened with their characters at the end of the series, saying that he believes Jacob is enjoying a “happy ever after with Renesmee because that’s where I left off. And yeah, he’s a pretty loyal dude.”
With all (hopefully) jokes aside, Lautner admitted that the role was challenging for many reasons, especially the way he had to prepare to play a buff and often shirtless werewolf on screen. “The amount of the working out and discipline and food that went into it, not fond memories,” the actor said. “It’s tough because when I was 17, 18, 19 years old, I couldn’t do any cardio because I had to just put on as much muscle as possible.”
This is not the first time Lautner has opened up about the challenges that came with playing the character that was beloved by thousands of people across the world. In an earlier interview with TODAY, the actor revealed his struggles with the fame the role brought, “In the moment, it got frustrating because you just wanted to live a normal life. But then when that’s taken away from you at all, you start to question yourself. (You) start to be like, ‘oh, do people not care about me anymore?’ When it goes away a little bit, you notice it, and that’s the dangerous part because that can mess with your mind.”
But he also admitted that he felt “much better about the role now” and it’s evident that #TeamJacob is going to start out strong if we get a fifth Twilight movie.
