Twilight director explains why Emmett carries a bag of loose eggs

Users had been sharing their bemusement at the detail on social media

Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke has explained a mysterious bag of loose eggs in one scene from the hit 2008 fantasy adaptation.

Based on Stephanie Meyers’ book of the same name, Twilight starred Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart as a vampire and 17-year-old high school student who fall in love.

Fans recently spotted the bag of eggs being carried by Emmett Cullen (Kellan Lutz) in the background of one scene set in a school cafeteria.

The eggs never served any function in the story, prompting some viewers to wonder why they were included in the first place.

After questions about the eggs began surfacing on social media, Lutz shared a picture of himself from around the time of filming, clutching the bag of eggs in-hand.

Asked to explain the meaning of the bag by Insider, the actor responded that he was “taking that secret to the grave”.

However, Hardwicke since told the publication that the “super quirky detail” was inspired by the actor’s own dietary regimen on set.

“I saw Kellan one day carrying a bag of, like, one dozen hard-boiled eggs,” she said. “I’m like, ‘What in the hell is going on? You’re not going to eat like a dozen eggs, are you?’

“I never had seen anybody carrying around a Ziploc bag of one dozen eggs and going to eat them all day long,” she added. “I was just laughing so hard. I’m like, ‘OK, [Emmett] has to have those eggs. You have to carry that in that scene,’ because it was just outrageous.”

Twilight can be streamed now on Netflix in the UK and US.