Popverse's top stories

• What to Watch September 2025: Wednesday season 2 wraps up on Netflix, Gen V returns to Prime Video, Only Murders in the Building is sluething about Hulu again, and so much more
• Simon Kinberg on writing X-Men movies, producing Glenn Powell's The Running Man remake, and co-creating Star Wars Rebels [Popversations]
• DC Studios president James Gunn originally wanted an actor other than John Cena for Peacemaker (but Cena won him over so much, he changed the character’s fate)

---

Years before he took flight as the Man of Steel, Superman and Lois star Tyler Hoechlin almost starred in the Twilight franchise. Hoechlin initially auditioned for Edward Cullen, the male lead, but he was passed over in favor of Robert Pattinson. However, the producers offered him the role of Edward’s brother Emmett.

There was just one problem – Hoechlin had a second career as a college baseball player, and the schedules didn’t line up.

“I was getting ready to start my first season at UC Irvine for baseball and I would have had to miss the first four weeks of the season,” Hoechlin recalls during an appearance on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast.

“I was driving into the parking structure to go to my Greek mythology class, and my manager called and said, ‘Hey, they’re casting this guy Robert Pattinson for Edward,’ who I had auditioned for. ‘They’re casting Robert for Edward, but they want you to play the brother Emmett.’ And I said, ‘Okay, when do they need an answer?’ And they’re like, ‘Pretty quick.’ I skipped my class. I still passed the class thankfully.”

“I called my parents, I called some family friends, I called my buddy who was a scout with the White Sox and asked him if I do this, what does that look like. At this point, we’re two weeks out from the season starting. I just transferred from Arizona State. UC Irvine had eliminated us in Omaha the year before. We were preseason top 10 picked to go back to Omaha, and I had just been named the starting season baseman, and the guy who was behind me at the time was hurt. I get this call, we need you to come up there, and I was going to miss the first four weeks of the season.”

“I remember sitting outside the locker room in the hallway that went up to the press box and I was sobbing with my buddy and my roommate at the time Sean Madigan, and I was telling him what was going on. He’s like, ‘Dude, I don’t know.’”

Tyler noted that it would be a huge risk to throw his baseball career away for a movie that might flop. Of course, he had no way of knowing that Twilight would become one of the biggest film franchises of the 21^st century. “It could be something that comes and goes, and nobody ever really cares about, or it could be the biggest thing in the world. It was the biggest thing in the world [laughs].”

“I finally talk to my buddy who was the scout again, and he’s like, ‘Look, end of the day, if you go and do this [coach Mike] Gillespie might let you come back and play at Irvine, but as a scout I’m going to have a hard time convincing an organization that we should draft a guy who left to go do a movie right before the season started.’ And I’m like, ‘No, I get it.’ So, I called Catherine Hardwicke.”

With a heavy weight on his heart, he told the director that he wouldn’t be in her movie.

“I’ve got 30 guys here who have been killing themselves for the last few months to make a run at this World Series again, and I would be letting every one of them down if I left. I can’t do that. And she’s like, ‘We’ve got a baseball scene in the movie,’ and I was like, ‘I know. I hope you guys have a great time. I really appreciate it, but I have to respectfully say no.’”

While Hoechlin wishes the schedule had lined up, he doesn’t regret his choice. The actor says that if he had taken Twilight, he always would’ve felt bad for letting his team down, and would regret not giving baseball a chance.

When Twilight hit theaters in 2008, Hoechlin’s teammates took him to watch the film, and gave him a good-natured ribbing.

“You know what the best part was? My teammates being supportive when Twilight opened. Two of my teammates had me go with them and a couple of girls to go watch that movie. And we showed up at the Irvine Spectrum and the line was around the shopping center. It was so long. Once we saw it, and it came out and made what it made, and got greenlit for like four more movies, they’re like, ‘Dude, you’re a fucking idiot. You should’ve done that movie.’ I was like, ‘[joking]You guys are assholes. I said no to be here for you guys.’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, you’re a dumbass, you should have done that [laughs].’”

---

Want to know what's coming up next in pop culture? Check out Popverse's guides to:

• Upcoming movies
• Upcoming TV shows
• Upcoming comics
• Upcoming games
• Upcoming fiction books
• Upcoming comic conventions