The face of the "Twilight" franchise could have, quite literally, looked entirely different a few years ago. After the success of the first "Twilight" film, director Chris Weitz was brought on board for the follow-up "New Moon." With Catherine Hardwicke's departure, there was talk of possible cast replacements, namely swapping out the original Jacob Black... Taylor Lautner!
Of course, today we'll be chatting with the one-and-only star suited to play Jacob when Taylor sits down with us for "MTV First: Taylor Lautner," a special in which the teen heartthrob will not only take questions from us, but the fans as well. The actor will also premiere the trailer for his latest movie, the action vehicle "Abduction."
Since the very beginning of "Twlight" right up until today, we've built some great memories with Taylor: his encounter with Les Grossman, comparing his abs to those of his co-star Robert Pattinson, when he learned about a Twi-hard's crazy tattoo and his itchy Jacob wig. But our all-time favorite Taylor moment came back in 2008 when the then-16-year-old humbly fought to keep his place in the "Twilight" saga.
When the rumors began flying that a then-scrawnier Taylor might get replaced by actor Michael Copon, Taylor kept calm and simply did what he needed to do to stay in the wolf pack.
"I have been working out. I've been working out since the day we finished filming 'Twilight.' I just weighed myself today; I've put on 19 pounds," Lautner, now 19, told us at the time, ensuring he'd more resemble the way a newly-beefy Jacob Black was described in Stephenie Meyer's "New Moon."
Taylor most certainly wasn't messing around when it came to honing his, er, craft. "I'm guaranteeing Weitz 10 more [pounds] by filming." While the actor hadn't even met the new director at the time, he told MTV News he was "excited" about the chance to grab lunch with him in the coming days to discuss the role.
"My job for 'Twilight' was to bring 'Twilight' Jacob to life. The friendly, happy-go-lucky little Jacob," he said. "And my job for 'New Moon' is completely different. And I've been looking forward to that. I've been getting ready for it. I can assure [the fans] that I will follow through with that job. So, we'll see."
The rest, as any Team Taylor member can attest, is history.
Tell us what you think of our #1 Taylor Lautner moment in the comments section and on Twitter!
** FOLLOW MTV MOVIES BLOG ON TWITTER! **