Even amid the boom of YA franchises, Divergent has remained an interesting beast. The film franchise, which adapted Veronica Roth’s book series, began in 2014, ultimately spanning a trilogy of blockbusters. But as a new interview reveals, that wasn’t always the plan — and Netflix almost swooped in to help save the saga. A new report from The Hollywood Reporter dives into the conversations that occurred after the third film, Allegiant, underperformed at the box office. Allegiant was originally set to be the first installment of a two-part finale, which would be followed by a new movie titled Ascendant. It has already been reported that Lionsgate considered retooling the final installment into a television film for Starz, but the new report reveals that “at one point, Netflix broached making Ascendant.”
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“For Twilight and for Hunger Games, it was 100 percent creative that led the decisions to split the adaptations into two films,” producer Erik Feig later explained. “For the Divergent series, there were additional factors that led to the decision to split it into two. And I don’t know that it served the creative quite as well as it could have.”
What Would Ascendant Have been About?
Ascendant would have concluded the narrative of Tris (Shaliene Woodley) and her allies and adversaries, and would have spanned the final half of the Allegiant book. As Roth explained in a recent interview, she still feels content with how the saga wrapped up onscreen.
“I mean, breaking things in two was all the rage at the time That was why that decision was made,” Roth recently told People. “But at that point, I think I always felt peace about it just because I knew the movies were taking a different track than the books, and if you change the lead up, you change the ending. So, I kind of felt like at that point … I feel like that third movie, I don’t know — there’s a lot we could talk about with it. But it’s its own thing.”
“It feels complete to me, relatively speaking, because what does that even mean at that point,” Roth added.
What Was Allegiant About?
Starring Woodley, Theo James, Jeff Daniels, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Zoe Kravitz, Maggie Q, Ray Stevenson, Bill Skarsgard, Octavia Spencer and Naomi Watts, Allegiant followed Tris Prior (Woodley), her boyfriend Four (James), and their group of friends escaping over the wall that enclosed the city in a post-apocalyptic and dystopian Chicago. Once outside, the group discovered new truths about things that shifted their alliances and introduced new threats.
“My message would be ‘Thanks for the support,’” James explained in a 2016 interview with TooFab. “I think it’s a shame that we can’t finish the story, but I think it’s evolving in a place where the actors that have been in the three movies probably won’t be in whatever it evolves to in the future.”
Would you have wanted to see Netflix finish the Divergent series? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
