Stephenie Meyer's 'Midnight Sun' boycotted by fans due to author's stance on diversity?

Twilight fans have been waiting for Stephenie Meyer's Midnight Sun for years now. The novel was released on August 4, 2020, and is a retelling of the Twilight from the perspective of vampire Edward Cullen. While the book was hyped up by Stephenie Meyer, many Twilight fans are refusing to buy the book due to Meyer's stance on diversity.

Many fans believe that Stephenie Meyer's might be racist due to the fact that she did not want diverse casting in the film adaptation of the Twilight saga. 

Fans boycott Midnight Sun due to Stephenie Meyer's stance on diversity in films

Also Read | Tom Hanks Could Soon Star As Geppetto In Disney's 'Pinocchio' Live-action Remake

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke revealed that the franchise lacked diversity due to Stephenie Meyer. According to the director, Stephenie Meyer resisted diverse casting for the Twilight saga. Catherine Hardwicke claimed that she wanted lot more of the cast to be diverse. However, Stephenie Meyer's had not really written the books with diversity in mind, so none of the main cast members were people of colour. 

Also Read | Brian Austin Green Takes Subtle Dig At Ex Megan Fox's Instagram Post About MGK

Hardwicke further added that Stephenie Meyer just did not see her world with diversity, while Hardwicke herself wanted to make Alice Japanese and also add other diverse races into the main cast. However, Stephenie Meyer's just did not want the Cullens to be more diverse. For Meyer, each character was based on someone close to her, so she could not imagine them as anything else. Stephenie Meyer even told Hardwicke that she had written all the Cullens as having pale glistening skin. 

However, Catherine Hardwicke was finally able to convince Stephenie Meyer to add some diversity to the cast. Thanks to Catherine's efforts, Kenyan-born actor Edi Gathegi got to play the role of Laurent. However, the role was that of a scary antagonistic vampire. 

Also Read | John Legend Says Anybody Voting For Kanye West In Elections Is 'reckless And Misinformed'

According to Hardwicke, the only reason Edi Gathegi managed to get the role was that Laurent had olive skin. Hardwicke told Meyer that there were Black olives too, which finally opened up the author to the idea of diversity. She even let some of Bella’s friends be other ethnicities. 

After Hardwicke's interview, many fans slammed Stephenie Meyer for her stance on diversity. Moreover, some netizens also took offence to the fact that Meyer's books referred to the Quileute people as shape-shifting animals. Some fans are now boycotting Midnight Sun due to all the allegations of racism levied against Stephenie Meyer. 

Also Read | Ashton Kutcher's Support To Ellen DeGeneres Over Toxic Environment Row Leaves Fans Furious

[Promo from @cadernopop Instagram and Goodreads]