It Looks Like The Host Will Be Another Trilogy from Stephenie Meyer

Steve Barton   |  

Feb 20, 2013

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With The Host set to be released in theatres on March 29th, of course thoughts are turning to whether or not we have a potential franchise here, and in a recent interview author Stephenie Meyer shed a bit more light on things.

Meyer told The AP that she is already working on a sequel to the 2008 novel she began writing as an escape from the editing of Eclipse, the third book in her Twilight vampire saga. And now that it, too, is reaching the big screen, she has more books in mind.

“Once you’ve created characters that have life to them, unless you kill them all, you know where their stories go. You’re always aware of what happens next,” Meyer said. “I’ve got outlines for the next books. I would hope that this would be a three-book arc, but we’ll see.”

The Host trades the vampires and werewolves of Meyer’s previous works for space invaders, and while it will inevitably draw comparisons to the book and film series that made Meyer a phenomenon, she hopes the story stands alone and appeals to a broader audience than just “Twi-hards.” For one thing, she calls it her “guy friendly” work because it explores bonds and loyalties beyond simple romantic love. “When you’re a teenager, love feels like life and death, but this is actual life and death, which is kind of more fun,” Meyer explained.

“Not to mention all the explosions and gunfire,” added Jake Abel, who plays Ian O’Shea, one of the human rebels in the story.

What The Host does have in common with The Twilight Saga is a love triangle, though one complicated further by two distinct entities sharing one body. “Jake and Max [Irons] call it the ‘love box’,” Meyer told the AP. And though she’s attracted to complicated relationships, that conflict probably won’t surface in the sequel she’s writing. “I feel like the ‘love box,’ as it is, is played out in this novel. It completely resolves into two happy places so that won’t be a focus going forward,” Meyer said.

Open Road Films is releasing The Host, based on Stephenie Meyer’s novel, on March 29, 2013, in the US. Look for it in the UK on the same day from Entertainment Film Distributors. It was directed by Andrew Niccol, who also wrote the screenplay. It stars Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, William Hurt, Jake Abel, Max Irons, Boyd Holbrook, and Frances Fisher.

Synopsis:
The Host is a riveting story about the survival of love and the human spirit in a time of war. Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact. Most of humanity has succumbed.

When Melanie (Ronan), one of the few remaining “wild” humans, is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading “soul” who has been given Melanie’s body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too-vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn’t expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love.