Jennifer Lawrence And Robert Pattinson Clash Over The Ultimate YA Crown: Twilight Or The Hunger Games?

Remember when 2012 was wall-to-wall YA chaos? The Hunger Games exploded, Twilight wrapped with Breaking Dawn Part 2, and the internet decided it had to pick a side. Cut to now: Jennifer Lawrence just picked hers — and it is not her own franchise.

JLaw on a lie detector: Twilight is cooler than The Hunger Games

During Vanity Fair's lie detector video with Robert Pattinson — yes, Katniss and Edward promoting their new movie together, because time is a flat circle — Pattinson asked the obvious question. Lawrence did not blink.

Robert: Do you think The Hunger Games is cooler than Twilight?
Jennifer: No.
Polygraph examiner: Truthful.

Pattinson looked genuinely stunned and blurted out: "Breaking news!" Which, fair. It is a pretty spicy take coming from the face of Panem.

The audition Lawrence never got

Here is a fun behind-the-scenes tidbit: Lawrence once auditioned for Twilight. She talked about it on The Rewatchables and kept the exact role to herself, but the outcome was immediate rejection — no callback, nothing. A year later, she booked Katniss and the rest is YA box office history. When Pattinson followed up and asked if she ever wished the Twilight audition had worked out, she said no.

How fame shaped her choices

Lawrence says she always pictured herself doing small, scrappy indies. She knew Hunger Games was going to be Twilight-level huge, and that actually made her hesitate at first. Still, she has made peace with being forever associated with Katniss — and she says that experience still guides what she says yes to now. Not running from it, just choosing carefully.

Pattinson on backlash: Twilight got hammered, Hunger Games didn’t

While the two were out promoting their new movie, Die My Love, they compared franchise war stories in an Entertainment Weekly chat. Pattinson pointed out that nobody really went after The Hunger Games the way people went after Twilight. In his words, there were die-hard fans and massive haters for Twilight, but he never heard anyone say they outright hated The Hunger Games. Lawrence basically nodded along, and they laughed about it. Whether you agree or not, he is not wrong about the Twilight punching-bag era.

So where do they land?

Lawrence thinks Twilight is the cooler franchise, even though she clearly still cares about The Hunger Games. And Pattinson is convinced Katniss and company dodged the culture-war shrapnel he lived through. Honestly, it is a fascinating cross-franchise moment from two people who would know.

• Quick refresher: The Hunger Games (dir. Gary Ross) hit theaters on March 23, 2012, from Lionsgate and Color Force. It sits at 7.2/10 on IMDb and 84% on Rotten Tomatoes.
• Streaming note: Both The Hunger Games and Twilight are available on Hulu.

Alright, your turn: which franchise was better? Drop your pick in the comments — and no fence-sitting.