Twilight: The Cullen Family Crest Explained (Meaning & Movie Origin)
The Cullen family crest never appeared in Stephanie Meyers’ bestselling Twilight novels, so why was this detail added to their film adaptations?
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The Cullen family crest never appeared in Stephanie Meyers’ bestselling Twilight novels, so why was this detail added to their film adaptations? Beloved and reviled in equal measure, the Twilight series was a young adult phenomenon that took the world by storm in the late noughties. The classic angsty story of “unassuming teen girl falls for brooding vampire boy” was a massive hit with teenagers and the not-so-secret guilty pleasure of many grown-up readers. But the series struggled to make the leap from page to screen, cycling through numerous different directors with each book’s cinematic adaptation.
The first film, 2008’s Twilight, was well-liked by fans despite a few cringe-worthy moments. Thirteen director Catherine Hardwicke gave the film an appropriately grungy atmosphere and worked closely with Meyers to ensure the book was adapted faithfully, leaving many fans saddened when Hardwicke didn’t return for New Moon. The director even added in a few new touches for eagle-eyed fans, and among these additions was the Cullen family crest, which is never mentioned in the source novels but adorns all of the vampiric brood in the first film.
But the Cullen family crest is unmissable in the movies, with even Hardwicke’s replacements Chris Weitz, David Slade, and Bill Condon ensuring that this detail cropped up consistently throughout the remaining quartet of franchise installments. So why was it added into the movies? Well, according to Hardwicke, it’s an embellishment brought in to show the Cullen brood are a real family, loyal to one another through anything. The film’s casting wisely opts to play down any resemblance between them to avoid incestual vibes (for anyone unfamiliar with the series, Twilight’s older-than-they-seem Cullen clan are not blood relatives, but rather a loose assemblage of immortal vampires, each of whom is responsible for another member’s transformation into a fellow undying bloodsucker).
Thus the Cullen “brothers” Edward, Jasper, and Emmett wear cuffs bearing the recognizable insignia while their “father” Carlisle wears a ring, their “sisters” (and love interests) Alice and Rosalie wear a choker and pendant respectively, and their “mother” Esme wears a bracelet. The items change slightly between films, but they’re ever-present and Bella even wears one after marrying into the family. In a likely unintentional touch, the rapidly-growing uncanny-valley baby produced by Edward and Bella is never seen wearing one.
The design of the crest mirrors the traits shared by its wearers, with a lion signifying the ferocity of the vampire clan and their hunting prowess (particularly Emmet), the hand above it representing their loyalty, and the trefoil below intended to stand for their immortality. It’s a subtle addition which adds to the lore of the series without requiring clumsy exposition and shows that Hardwicke understood the material’s tone better than many directors adapting works with their own in-built mythology. The fact that the rest of the films kept the crest shows that it was an effective visual shorthand illustrating the Cullens as a united front, which is exactly the sort of clever film making the series never got credit for thanks to the outsized hate heaped on the Twilight series by critics.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/twilight-cullen-crest-explained-movies-meaning/