The bad news keeps rolling in for fans of theDivergentseries. Back in July, we learned that Lionsgate was pulling a pretty surprising move by repositioning the YA franchise in light of sub-par theatrical performances. Instead of the planned fourth and final film,The Divergent Series: Allegiant, the saga will wrap-up on TV (it’s unclear if the plan is for a series or TV movie) before branching out into spin-off series.
Since then, the major question has been whether or not they’ll be able to lock in their leading cast to return, especially since key members of that cast, including franchise headlinerShailene Woodleyand co-starMiles Teller, have openly said they didn’t know anything about the decision until minutes before the news broke.
Now, Woodley has respectfully but firmly made it pretty clear that she’s not interested in any form of TV conclusion. Speaking withScreenRantduring her rounds ofSnowdenpress, the actress said,
And she’s not the first cast member to express disinterest in the prospect of a TV finale. Both Teller andAnsel Elgort, who plays Woodley’s brother in the films, have given quotes that make it sound like their time on the franchise is a done deal. Now I guess we’re all just waiting onTheo Jamesto say “Nah”.
Teller toldVarietylast month. “When we all signed on for the first one we had every intention of finishing it theatrically. We signed on for x amount of movies and you take that all into consideration. We wanted to see that storyline finish.” Adding, with a whiff of finality, ““We all really enjoyed that time we spent together and those characters.” Elgort expressed similar sentiments back in July when he spoke withThe Huffington Post, saying “It’s obviously sad because the cast all really liked each other, but hopefully we can all work together on a different project.”
It will certainly be interesting to see how Lionsgate proceeds from here. With a cast that’s both not interested, and from the sounds of it, not required to return for their proposed finale, how will they finish out the series? They could pull a full re-cast likeThe Mortal Instrumentsdid with the Freeform seriesShadowhunters, but a re-cast this late in the game would stick out pretty sorely. And considering how poorlyAllegiantperformed at the box office, the bigger question may be if anyone would even tune in for the televised finale, especially without the leading cast.
