In 2012, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 brought the beloved vampire series and confirmed cultural phenomenon to a climactic and thrilling end, shocking fans with a gory, high-stakes battle that hadn’t quite existed in the book. Here’s a thought, though: What if that sequence, which led to jaws dropping across the world, almost didn’t happen the way you remember? Director Bill Condon and Twilight author Stephenie Meyer had two very different ideas for how they wanted the climax of the movie to play out, and it was only through the butting of heads that the movie we know today took shape. Had Meyer’s original plan gone ahead, the conclusion to the Twilight saga might have looked entirely different — and fans would definitely not want to imprint on an ending that stomped all over their emotions.
The Cullens vs. The Volturi (or Condon vs. Meyer)
At the heart of the creative tension between director and originator was a disagreement over just how much carnage should unfold in the climactic battle between the Cullens and the Volturi. In the book, the confrontation between the two sides ends in a relatively anti-climactic handshake, where Aro (the leader of the Volturi, played in the archest of camp fashion by Michael Sheen) ultimately decides not to fight after realizing he would lose too many of his soldiers. That peaceful resolution to the story, which did stay true to Meyer’s themes of love and pacifism, left the film at risk of ending in an enormously anticlimactic fashion.
In an interview with The L.A. Times, Meyer explained that Aro, who can see the future through Alice’s visions, ultimately chooses to back down because he realizes his own defeat. “The battle is exactly what Aro saw,” Meyer said. “It’s going to be a close fight, a lot of people are going to die, and I’m probably going to die. I’m going to die.” In Meyer’s version, the Volturi would have emerged victorious but crippled, with their power severely weakened.
That idea didn’t feel right for Condon, however. He pushed for a more action-packed, visually dramatic climax, and thus, a bloody battle ensued on-screen — with one crucial twist. The resulting battle and shocking deaths, including major characters like Carlisle Cullen (Peter Facinelli), Jasper Hale (Jackson Rathbone), and Seth and Leah Clearwater (Booboo Stewart and Julia Jones), were all part of a vision conjured by Alice (Ashley Greene), ensuring that, while viewers were left on the edge of their seats and treated to an epic brawl, none of their favorite characters actually died.
According to Condon, Meyer was initially nervous about the impact of seemingly wiping out major Volturi characters like Aro. She felt audiences would feel cheated if it turned out to be only a vision. Instead, Meyer suggested that even more Cullens — including fan-favorites Emmett and Rosalie (Kellan Lutz and Nikki Reed) — should fall in battle as well. In her mind, the good guys needed to feel the weight of loss, too, even if the battle itself didn’t actually happen. Condon, however, didn’t agree with that proposal and was set on wiping out the major Volturi villains in the vision. “I wanted to kill all the major Volturi, which we ultimately did,” Condon told The L.A. Times.
‘Twilight’s Cinematic Compromise
With two very different ideas for how to end a multibillion-dollar franchise on the table, a compromise was going to have to be made. The version that Meyer proposed was arguably far darker and distressing, with the Cullen casualties painting a really bleak picture of their victory. Condon, on the other hand, was keen for fans to walk away satisfied and proposed a cathartic, action-packed conclusion that visually represented the stakes without losing any of the beloved characters in a distressing manner.
The compromise that made its way to the final cut of Breaking Dawn Part 2 kept Condon’s idea of wiping out the Volturi, but as part of Alice’s vision. Doing this allowed the filmmakers to showcase a high-stakes battle that packed an emotional punch without truly changing the outcome of Meyer’s original story. And while fans were initially shocked by the deaths of beloved characters like Carlisle and Jasper, the reveal that it was merely a vision helped ease the tension.
Meyer did have a hand in shaping this version of the final battle, though. As she mentioned in the L.A. Times interview, the visual representation of Alice’s vision was added so that audiences could see what Aro was seeing during his decision-making process. “We had Alice get involved so we could visually show it, but it’s all still there,” Meyer said.
How ‘Breaking Dawn Part 2’s Ending Could Have Impacted the Franchise
If Meyer had won out and viewers also got to witness a vision of the Cullens suffering devastating losses at the hands of the Volturi, how might that have changed the legacy of the Twilight saga? It’s possible that the franchise wouldn’t be remembered with the same sense of closure and emotional satisfaction. After all, Twilight is, at its undead heart, a love story — a tale about a family overcoming impossible odds to protect each other. Ending the saga with the potential for significant loss of life on the Cullen side would have risked upsetting the dedicated fanbase that had invested so much in these characters.
By contrast, the final version of the film we got to see, with its fake-out battle, allowed fans to experience the adrenaline rush of a fight scene without losing the emotional connection they had to the characters, and it still retained that shock factor. The successful balance they found was crucial to the film’s success; Breaking Dawn Part 2 earned an “A” CinemaScore, with audiences largely praising the unexpected twist, and the film proved a smash at the box office too.
Would Fans Have Accepted Meyer’s Version?
Of course, it’s basically impossible to know how fans would have reacted to Meyer’s idea, but it’s safe to say that audiences were pretty happy with the version that made it to cinemas. The battle provided a high point for viewers who had followed the journey of Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) for years, while still honoring the happy ending that Meyer had written in the novel. As Condon himself observed in his comments, killing off major characters might have pushed audiences too far. The way the Twihards reacted to Breaking Dawn Part 2 proves that they were absolutely right to go the way they did and the money it earned speaks for itself.
The film went on to gross $848 million globally, which also gave it the title of the highest-grossing film in the Twilight franchise (with inflation, that would be $1.18 billion today). While some critics weren’t exactly enthusiastic about the film’s positive points, as they had been through the entire series, the fans were overwhelmingly happy with what they got, praising the emotional impact of the ending and the hugely thrilling fight scene that delivered on every level. And if we’re being honest, when you get to the last part of a story like this, it’s about delivering for the fans, not the critics, as the story wasn’t written for them anyway.
The Legacy of ‘Breaking Dawn Part 2’
More than a decade on from the end of the series, it’s pretty obvious that the creative tension between Meyer and Condon helped create a film that really struck a chord with its audience. The Breaking Dawn Part 2 that made it to cinemas was the result of a balancing act between Meyer’s desire to stay true to the words she put on the page and Condon’s need to shoot an ending that was actually visually satisfying, as opposed to the biggest threat in the world being satisfied with a handshake!
Had Meyer’s version of the battle made it to the final cut, Twilight might have been remembered as a darker, more tragic story instead of the beloved (if a little bit creepy, let’s be real) story we got. Instead, the film’s twist ending provided fans with the best of both worlds — a thrilling, heart-pounding battle scene that ultimately preserved the Cullen family they had come to love.
In the end, the hard work and compromising between Meyer and Condon gave fans an ending that not only stayed true to the source material but improved upon it, making Breaking Dawn Part 2 a fitting end to a cultural phenomenon.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.
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