While the New Moon juggernaut arrives this week in a torrid, shirtless, wolfy blur, it didn't happen overnight. From the release of its first wolfcake images, through its historic Comic-Con panel, to its seismic world premiere, join Movieline now in retracing the making of a modern phenomenon.
April
· April 22: The mania kicks off with the first officially released photo, of the eternally shirtless wolf pack, leading us to coin the term "wolfcake" and describe the quartet of Canine American brothers as "a roving band of dreamy-eyed, Axe-body-spray-abusing lycanthropes who protect Bella from revenge-seeking vampiresses, while teaching her valuable lessons about the art of extreme manscaping."
· April 23: 30 Days of Night director David Slade is named director of the series's third installment, Eclipse.
May
· May 12: A New Moon script surfaces in St. Louis, fished out of a garbage bin at the airport. The culprit is widely believed to be Anna Kendrick, who was in town shooting Up in the Air. A rep claims the actress "wouldn't have left scripts lying around."
· May 13: An early review of the script suggests it's not that bad.
· May 19: The first poster is unveiled, in which Edward and Jacob press buttocks together in a potent visual representation of the girl who came between them.
· May 21: Twilight star Cam Gigandet battles armed and dangerous Twihards in a parody video.
June
· June 1: A trailer! A dinner party nearly goes horribly awry after Bella gets a paper cut. We get our first glimpse of what is to be many, many, many shots of Taylor Lautner without a shirt on. And a werewolf transformation!!! We need to take the day off.
· June 3: The trailer sets off a new round of New Moon hysteria, with obsessive freeze-frames scanning for Bella thongs and foreshadowings of wereshlongs to come.
July
· July 10: With Comic-Con quickly advancing, fanboys declare war on the icky girl germs set to infect what has long been a mostly XY-bechromosomed nerdfest. Fanboys declare themselves victorious when the New Moon panel is moved to earlier in the day.
· July 21: "Give us one over the shoulder, Taylor! That's it! Right there!"
· July 23: Movieline sneaks into Comic-Con's storied Hall H, plants its flag, awaits the madness to come. Our field reporting reveals New Moon fans are -- gasp -- also curious about Avatar.
· July 23: The New Moon panel is louder and more insane than we could have ever imagined. These teenage girls screaming "TAKE IT OFF!!!" demonstrate an aggro sense of entitlement that chilled us to the bone. They will cut you. Watch our footage -- especially the last five seconds. And be afraid. Be very afraid.
· July 24: Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart play Movieline's My Favorite Scene.
· July 30: Au revoir, Rachelle. Rachelle Lefevre is fired from the series, to be replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard. Rachelle says she is "stunned" and "saddened." Summit snaps back that her taking of a part in tiny indie film Barney's Version brought upon the scheduling conflict that led to her dismissal. We don't buy it.
August
· Aug. 11: Introducing the Twilight Barbie collection. Forks Barbie Vampire Dreamwagon sold separately.
September
· Sep. 14: The second trailer arrives, offering Robert Pattinson sans shirt and our first glimpses of Dakota Fanning and Michael Sheen. OMG indeed.
· Sept. 21: An awkward morning-after moment between Robert Pattinson and his she-wolf co-star is captured during the LA Times's set exclusive.
October
· Oct. 12: We're buried in a New Moon merchalanche: band aids, hobo bags, tribal hoodies, music boxes. Plus many more reconfigured items from the Cher Collection.
· Oct. 20: We jump on the obsessive screengrabbing bandwagon, pulling 9 Awkward Images From the First New Moon Clip. Then reach back in time to offer 9 Werewolves Lamer Than New Moon's Wimpwolf.
· Oct. 22: The Return of the Werepenis!
November
· Nov. 20: Dakota Fanning is Homecoming Princess. Luckily it's for real, and no hogs blood makes a surprise appearance.
· Nov. 2: New Moon VFX supervisor Susan MacLeod talks to us about turning shirtless boys into furry beasts shortly before receiving her Behind the Camera Award.
· Nov. 11: We talk Twilight and Jimmy Choo with Nikki Reed at the BTC Awards.
· Nov. 10: New Moon bit player Christian Serratos takes it all off for a PETA ad, ruining the homoerotic fun.
· Nov. 11: Movieline Geographic visits the Tasmanian Lautner in his natural habitat.
· Nov. 16: The cast swarms late night TV.
· Nov. 17: Some New Moon parodies are kinda funny!
· Nov. 17: PREMIERE!!!!