Taylor Lautner Keeps Controversial Role of Jacob Black in ‘New Moon’

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CHICAGO – Fans of the “Twilight” books and movies have been clamoring for news about whether or not Taylor Lautner would reprise his role in the sequel to the massively successful film, “New Moon”. Just a small announcement that didn’t feature Lautner in the cast list in this slideshow caused unrest in the “New Moon” community over the potential of re-casting the role. Good news, Taylor fans. He’s back.

Chris Weitz, the director of “New Moon,” revealed Wednesday in a post to Stephenie Meyer’s website, “I’m very happy to announce that Taylor Lautner will be playing Jacob Black in New Moon and that he’s doing so with the enthusiastic support of Summit Entertainment, the producers, and Stephenie Meyer.”

There had been questions as to whether or not Taylor Lautner would be allowed to return because his character, Jacob Black, grows significantly in physical size in “New Moon” and plays a much bigger role. MTV News recently spoke to Lautner who said that he had been bulking up in the hope that he would be brought back for the role. He said, “My job for Twilight was to bring Twilight Jacob to life - the friendly, happy-go-lucky little Jacob. My job for New Moon is completely different. I’ve been looking forward to that. I’ve been getting ready for it, and I can assure them I will follow through with that”

Taylor Lautner in
Taylor Lautner in “Twilight”
Photo credit: Summit Publicity

The director and Summit Entertainment agreed that Taylor Lautner can handle the role, with Chris Weitz writing, “It is not surprising that there has been speculation about whether the same actor would portray a character who changes in so many surprising ways throughout the series. But it was my first instinct that Taylor was, is, and should be Jacob, and that the books would be best served by the actor who is emotionally right for the part.”

“Twilight”, starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, from director Catherine Hardwicke, has grossed $178 million domestically, putting the sequel, “New Moon,” into production immediately. Other books in the Stephenie Meyer series include “Eclipse” and “Breaking Dawn”.

StarRead our Robert Pattinson story on “Parts Per Billion” and “New Moon”.
StarSee our 2009 Summit release slideshow with “New Moon”.
StarSee our high-quality, 28-image “Twilight” slideshow.
StarRead our “Twilight” opening-weekend box-office story.
StarRead our “Twilight” sequel story prior to opening weekend.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Maxx's picture

taylor is Jacob

I think Taylor is superb in making jacob Black’s character to life. He is cute and hot but as the story goes, Jacob grows to be very big. So if the producers decided to keep Taylor, he has to live up to the story. But it’s the truth if I say that Taylor is quite small for the role of a big 16 year old, so if the producers decide to change him to Steven Strait or Michael Copon, I’d understand. Taylor can play Jacob’s part in the first parts of New moon, when Jacob is still a normal kid, he can change into Steven Strait in the werewolf parts - Taylor and Steven look awfully the same to me.

Anonymous's picture

cast them both!

the petition is on to cast BOTH Taylor and Steven as jacob black. Please sign and spread!

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/taylorstevenjacob

Anonymous's picture

Casting them both sounds good.

Taylor and Stevens should both play Jacob. Taylor as the younger one and Steven when he transformed. They would spend money for special effects anyway to make taylor look bigger and taller, so why not do away with that special effects and cast them BOTH? The special effects might not look natural anyway and Jacob is taller and bigger through the rest of the story, that’s gonna be expensive.

Anonymous's picture

jacob black

steven strait would be the most perfect older version of jacob black..after all stephenie meyer did base jacob on him .if taylor lautner played him for the whole saga it would ruin the next 3 movies.no matter how ripped he is he has a baby face and is too short.please,please,please cast them both.that would be so awesome.if you dont you are going to piss off over 4000000 fans..(see petition)…:)

Anonymous's picture

YAY! I’m totally siked to

YAY! I’m totally siked to see that he’s coming back . i mean i knew that since “Jacob” was growing excessively and he keeps changing in PHYSICAL size — i figured they would do like they did on lord of the rings and have stunt
doubles and then just put his face on it. lmao but i’m totally glad that he’s
going to be playing “Jacob” again because he made a great impression as “Jacob”
on us Fans =)

Brittanyyy's picture

i'm superr excited about new moon. (:

i really think that they should cast only taylor. taylor is a perfect jacob, and if he proves to have seriously bulked up then why have steven? i mean, if taylor hasn’t bulked up enough then bring steven in. yes, if they use some special effects to make it seem that jacob grew taller it will cost a lot of money, but they will earn and increase their profits by the ticket sales. it just makes sense to me to just keep taylor. he’s the perfect “jacob”. (: (: (:

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