Kristen Stewart has been in the news for other reasons than promoting Snow White and the Huntsman and now her actions may be the reason Universal has decided not to bring the actress back for their planned sequel for Snow White and the Huntsman.

Universal now plans to take their ideas for a Snow White and The Huntsman sequel and turn it into a spin-off focusing on just the Huntsman, played by Chris Hemsworth, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The trade reports that Rupert Sanders will most likely come back to direct the new film, but that Stewart has been dropped. Also, the film won’t use the script that David Koepp wrote and that the writer is “being settled out of his rich contract.” All this means that Universal is back to square one with the Snow White and the Huntsman sequel.

“The studio is currently exploring options to continue the franchise,” a Universal spokeswoman says.

All of this comes after Stewart and Sanders publicly apologized for having a romantic affair (Stewart was in a long-term live-in relationship with her Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson, while Sanders is married with two children). It’s unknown if the studio decided to axe Stewart from the sequel because of this, but things would be awkward between the two if she had returned. Also, for the first film, Stewart has the backing of the massive, very loyal Twilight fanbase behind her and she’s receiving some serious backlash from said fanbase.

Obviously Stewart was the headline actress to look out for in the film, and whether her absence will hurt the sequel remains to be seen, though it seems Universal is now banking on the star power of Hemsworth, who plays Thor in the Marvel universe films, Thor and The Avengers (and the upcoming Thor: The Dark World).

The Snow White character was expected to return for at least one more sequel and that the Huntsman would be the focus of attention in the third film. But now those plans have been scrapped, it is unknown if Universal wants to continue with pursuing a direct sequel.

So Universal is in the process of finding a new writer for their Huntsman spinoff and hopes they can find one before they start filming in July when Hemsworth completes his work on Thor: The Dark World.

Do you think that Universal made the right decision by dropping Stewart from this film franchise?

[Source: THR]