Off the back of an underwhelming box office run for The Divergent Series: Allegiant, Lionsgate announced back in July that it had scrapped its plans for a theatrical release for the fourth and final chapter, Ascendant, instead opting to go down the television route to finish the YA adaptation with a TV movie (and a potential series spinoff).
The announcement was news to star Shailene Woodley, who revealed that she hadn’t been informed about the change of plans prior to the story breaking. The actress has now been discussing the project with Screen Rant, and by the sounds of it, we shouldn’t expect to see her reprising the role of Tris Prior on the small screen.
“Last I heard they were trying to make it into a television show,” said Woodley. “I didn’t sign up to be in a television show. Out of respect to the studio and everyone involved, they may have changed their mind and may be doing something different, but I’m not necessarily interested in doing a television show.”
Lionsgate has stated that the initial plan is to use a TV movie to launch a first season of between 10 and 13 episodes, so it remains to be seen whether the studio will be able to convince any of the cast to return. That being said, given that multiple seasons are being eyed, Lionsgate may wish to go down the soft reboot path and recast anyway. Time will tell.
Adrian Bold says
It’s a shame that low returns will mean this series won’t conclude on the big screen. I actually enjoyed the films, including Allegiant. They weren’t the best acted, scripted, or CGI competent films – but there was still an interesting story there.
You can’t argue with the box office though – no company will keep on making films if there isn’t a good chance of profit.