Actor Peter Facinelli, who appeared as vampire Dr. Carlisle Cullen in the Twilight film saga, has some thoughts about the Midnight Sun television series.
Variety reported in September 2024 that the 2020 novel Midnight Sun, written by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer, will be turned into an animated show for Netflix. Midnight Sun gives readers Edward Cullen’s point of view regarding the events of Twilight, which is narrated by his human love interest, Bella Swan.
Screen Rant reported that Facinelli, alongside his Twilight castmates Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, and Jackson Rathbone, stated he wouldn’t be providing his voice for an animated version of Carlisle in the upcoming Netflix show while at a November 2025 Motor City Comic Con panel. Facinelli, who was featured in all five of the Twilight films, said he would have enjoyed reprising the character.
“Well, here’s the truth, I’m bummed, because I love that character so much, so I hate the idea of having someone else play it,” said Facinelli during the Twilight panel. “But also, that movie, to me, like so many people, if you watch that movie, it takes you back a time. There’s a nostalgia to it. It takes you back to a time when you were watching it with your mom, or watching it with your friends, when you were watching it in the movie theater. I feel like there’s a part of growing up that people experience over the last 25 years, 20 years, you know, with these movies.”
Rathbone, who played vampire Jasper Hale, also revealed that several of the original Twilight stars pitched for themselves to voice their respective characters for Midnight Sun.
“We were like, ‘Hey, it would be kind of cool, we’re still pretty fresh out of it. It’s not that far. Our voices haven’t changed that much. Let’s go ahead and let them know, as a group, collectively, we’d love to come back and do it the right way,’” said Rathbone, as reported by Screen Rant. “No one asked for a lot of money, trust me. [Laughs] We’re always coming back because we love y’all, man, we wanted to do it for the fans. We love our characters. And they very nicely said, ‘No.’ We couldn’t even get an audition for it, which is funny.”