TheDivergentmovie franchise may get its conclusion after all. Lionsgate and Summit’s adaptation of the YA book trilogy byVeronica Rothwas envisioned as the nextHunger Gameswhen it kicked off in 2014 with Oscar nomineeShailene Woodleyin the lead role. The first film failed to captureHunger Gamesnumbers at the box office, but $288.9 million wasn’t exactly a disaster so Lionsgate and Summit trucked on with the sequelInsurgent, which saw new directorRobert Schwentke(Red) take over the franchise fromNeil Burger. That movie scored marginally more at the box office with a $297.3 million worldwide total (despite a larger budget), but hey, not a total garbage fire just yet, soAllegiantwas put swiftly into production.
ForAllegiant, however, Lionsgate looked to extend the life of the franchise by adapting only part of the final book in Roth’s trilogy in this third movie. The intention was to then wrap the franchise up with a fourth installment,Ascendant, which would incorporate aspects of Roth’s trilogy-capping book as well as new story elements. ThusAllegiantleft things off with a pretty big cliffhanger, as Lionsgate and Summit took for granted that they’d get to finish this movie franchise off with one more film.
Of courseAllegiantfell quite short of expectations, grossing over $100 million less than its predecessor against an even larger budget. First,the budget forAscendantwas slashed, but then a few months later, word came that Lionsgatewas scrapping the movie altogether, leaving the franchise unfinished. The plan at that time was to conclude the story with a TV movie that would then set up a spinoff TV series. Woodley and other actors from the film made clear that theywere not down to star in a TV show adaptation of the movies, and given that their contracts were for feature films, they were under no obligations to complete their runs as the characters.
Things went quiet on theAscendantfront after that, but now Deadline reports that Lionsgate has picked these plans back up as new subsidiary Starz is developingAscendantas a drama series based on the Summit/Lionsgate movie. Things are still in the early stages, butLee Toland Krieger(The Age of Adaline)—who was set to direct the feature filmAscendant—is attached to direct and executive produce the series withAdam Cozad(Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit)—who was also attached to write the movie—writing and executive producing the TV show.
This is a very weird thing, made even weirder by the fact that Krieger and Cozad are still involved. Plot details are unclear at the moment, so we don’t know ifAscendantwill wrap up the story of the movie or will attempt to reboot the central conceit of the film franchise and start anew. It’s also unclear if the actors from the movies will reprise their roles, but again, they are not contractually obligated to do so and folks like Woodley andMiles Tellerhave gone on the record stating that they wouldn’t be involved with this TV series idea.
It’s rare that feature film franchises are left open-ended, especially when based on books. Things likeThe Mummy, where a studio hopes tostarta franchise and falters, happen more often, but the only other comparable example toAscendantI can think of is when production onThe Mortal Instrumentssequel shut down a few weeks in when the box office receipts from the first movie made clear it wasn’t going to be a hit.
Roth’s involvement in the film franchise, by her own admission, became limited as the movies wore on and as Lionsgate/Summit searched for ways to makeThe Divergent Seriesa hit. They leaned into male audiences with the action-heavy first sequel, then tried to envision the movies as more of a sci-fi franchise withAllegiant. They still failed to catch on, but perhaps they’ll have more luck in the TV realm.
Krieger and Cozad’s involvement seems to signal there was some exciting or promising central idea inAscendantworth exploring, so it’ll be interesting to see if this TV series gets the greenlight from Starz. And, of course, it’ll be interesting to find out what the hell this is—a reboot? A sequel with a new cast? Whatever the case,The Divergent Seriesremains of one Hollywood’s most curious oddities of the past few years.
