Divergent author Veronica Roth has been speaking about how the one-time blockbuster adaptation of her series of books never had an ending.
Released amongst a flurry of big-budget YA adaptations, the Divergent franchise was one of the few to hang onto The Hunger Games coattails when it was released in 2014.
Set in a future world that is divided into factions based on virtues, Divergent starred Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Tony Goldwyn, Maggie Q and Kate Winslet.
Following an impressive global box-office haul of $288 million, a sequel was greenlit, and in 2015 Insurgent was released to similar returns of $297 million. As was the trend at the time, with studios attempting to wring as much cash from the IP as possible, Lionsgate made the decision to split Veronica Roth’s final book Allegiant into two parts.
The first film would share the same title as the source, with part two titled Ascendant. However, when Allegiant stiffed at the box-office and earned terrible reviews (11% on Rotten Tomatoes), Lionsgate slashed the budget for Ascendant before ultimately pulling it from theaters with the hopes of making it into a TV film, and then potentially a series, which also never came to fruition.
Now Roth has been speaking about how she is at peace with the fact that the final part of her story will never ascend to the big screen. She told People “I mean, breaking things in two was all the rage at the time. That was why that decision was made, 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?”
The Divergent series still fared a lot better than some other franchise non-starters from that era of YA adaptations. Remember The Giver? How about I Am Number 4? What are your thoughts on the Divergent franchise? Were you upset that it was never finished? Let us know by heading to our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
