It’s hard to believe that it’s been 10 years since Twilight changed the game of romance fantasy. The first film in the supernatural series hit theaters on Nov. 21, 2008. A decade later, it’s still one of the most popular. 

Thankfully, Entertainment Weekly spoke with director Catherine Hardwicke and stars Peter Facinelli (Carlisle), Jackson Rathbone (Jasper), Kellan Lutz (Emmett), and Edi Gathegi (Laurent) to revisit the teen vampire phenomenon. 

“I love that I see how it changed the landscape,” Hardwicke says. “They felt there was a limit to how many women and girls would actually go see a movie. [Laughs] That was not true. Opening weekend, they were like, ‘Hey, if we make $39 million, we’re going to be excited.’ Cut to us making $69 [million]. Then they’re like, ‘Well that’s all, everyone who wanted to see it saw it opening weekend.’ Cut to us making $100 mil.” 

I’ve never really been into vampire stories,” Gathegi admits. “The clever thing that [Meyer] did with Twilight was, it’s really a story of star-crossed lovers — it’s disguised through vampirism. I’m going along for the ride because of the emotional core, the teenage angst, the love story. Whatever you put on top of that, if it’s done in a truthful way and everybody’s buying into the premise, I’ll take it.”

“I think it might have spawned, like, The Vampire Diaries,” Facinelli says. “I remember sitting there, we were up in Vancouver, and that cast had just finished the pilot, and they were like, ‘Oh, we’re kind of doing the TV version of you guys.’”

Read more at EW.