Josh Peck Says He Was in the Final Few Actors in the Running to Play Edward in TWILIGHT

Josh Peck, best known for starring in the shows Drake & Josh, Turner and Hooch, and How I Met Your Father, revealed this week that he was in the running to play Edward Cullen in the Twilight movies, and he even got down to the final few, but as we all know, was beat by Robert Pattinson for the role. Peck had Twilight alum Taylor Lautner on a recent episode of his podcast Great Guys (via Bustle), and he revealed that he was almost cast in the role.

Peck recalled to Lautner:

“I remember it's like 2006? 7? They’re like, ‘Audition for this movie, Twilight, it's based on a book, it's going to be great.’ So I send in my tape, for Edward.”

Peck claimed that while he didn’t ultimately land the part, he was close to nabbing it.

“A month later, I’m with my manager and he goes, ‘It’s down to you and three guys, you’re close.’”

Peck says he was shocked about this development.

“I’m like, ‘Really?’ I hadn’t even had a tummy tuck yet, I’m like, ‘There’s no way. He’s got to be so shirtless, it’s not going to happen.’ Spoiler alert—didn’t get it.”

This was all new information for Lautner, who would have welcomed Peck to the world of Twilight. “Did I know this? That’s amazing,” he remarked.

Peck was far from the only actor who put his name in for Edward Cullen. Scott Eastwood, Dave Franco, and Dustin Milligan have all revealed they auditioned to play the vampire.

Some of the actors who went on to land other roles in the Twilight cinematic universe also initially auditioned for Edward, including Jamie Campbell Bower, who ended up playing Caius, and Michael Welch, who took the role of Mike Newton.

However, despite Peck’s claim that he was one of the final contenders to play Edward, he may not have gotten as far as he thought. In June, E! reported that the final four contenders to play Edward were Pattinson, Ben Barnes, Shiloh Fernandez, and Jackson Rathbone, who would go on to play Edward’s brother Jasper.

All four actors reportedly went to director Catherine Hardwicke's California home to do their final screentests opposite Kristen Stewart, who had already been cast as Bella Swan. And according to Stewart, who spoke about the final auditions with The New Yorker in 2021, she knew the right choice from the beginning. “It was so clear who worked. I was literally just, like...” she said, mimicking a swoon motion.

Peck is a solid actor, and was cute in the shows he’s done, but he has more of a boy next door look. Pattinson was always Edward, and it’s wild that there were any other contenders. The Twilight movies are silly, but you can’t deny that chemistry.