Team Taylor Wins: Lautner To Stay On For ‘New Moon’

Congratulations, Taylor, you still have a job.

If you’re one of the people who were horrified by rumors that Taylor Lautner, who played Jacob in “Twilight,” might be replaced by another actor for the sequel, “New Moon,” well, you’re in luck. If you’re one of the people who was excited by rumors that Taylor Lautner might be replaced for “New Moon,” well, you’re out of luck. Variety reports that Lautner is indeed staying on for the follow-up to the teen vampire hit movie.

(btw, this week I saw “Twilight” described as “the movie about well-behaved vampires.” I thought this was hysterical and I apologize profusely to the writer for not remembering his or her name.)

In “New Moon,” Jacob plays a much more prominent role, and he’s also supposed to be much bigger and stronger. There was some concern that the young sixteen year old Lautner might not look right. However, “New Moon” director Chris Weitz said Lautner was “emotionally right” for the part.

I’m just guessing that initially the producers had thought that fans of the books would be upset if Jacob in the movie didn’t match the description they’d read and had come to know so well. However, once the movie opened and those same fans got used to Lautner in the role, the idea of replacing him looked like it might cause more of an outcry than not having him perfectly fit the book’s vision of the character.

It probably is the wiser decision to not make any changes now. Besides, boys can change a lot at that age–they’ll be lucky if Lautner doesn’t sprout six inches in the middle of the shoot. As for him supposedly aging a lot between the two books, well, that seems like something that could be fixed in the screenplay.