Why Is No One Addressing The Biggest Problem With The Final ‘Divergent’ Movie?

Last month, the news broke that after a less-than-spectacular box office for the third Divergent movie, Allegiant, the final film, Ascendant, will skip theaters and be released as a TV movie, potentially on a streaming service. There is also the possibility that Lionsgate is setting up the series to continue with a spinoff show.

Allegiant made $66 million domestically, and the YA series has always been viewed as varying degrees of disappointing, mostly because it was always both competing and yet following in the footsteps of The Hunger Games movies, the main inspiration and model for the fellow dystopian action novels to be adapted to film in the first place.

The news that Ascendant would pass on a theatrical release caused a lot of eyebrows to raise, a sign that there was little faith in the series’ final film installment, and that it was not worth the financial risk to keep it as a feature film, originally scheduled to hit theaters on June 9, 2017 (after being moved back three months from the series’ usual March release dates).

Sure, the news is a bit shocking, considering this really hasn’t happened before for other films, and certainly not YA adaptations. But the film moving to an HBO or a Netflix or really even a cable channel like Freeform is exactly where it needs to be. It’s a super smart move, and one that is sure to benefit both fans of the series and the studio alike. Because there is a bigger problem at hand here, and ugh, no, not that they decided to split the last book into 2 movies, although that was a dumb move, too.

The bigger problem is that no one in the cast knows what’s going on. Or at least, that’s what they’re claiming. This is not a good sign for many reasons. The fact that big names such as Shailene Woodley, Miles Teller, Theo James and Ansel Elgort are seemingly clueless is…strange. It’s been about a month now since the news of this plan broke, so, were none of them given a heads up? No one thought to shoot out a quick group text to let them know there would be some news? No producer has thought about or shared with the main cast a general plan? An option to work on the film? A very tentative schedule of when it would shoot? These are some of the most in-demand young actors today who can scoop up nearly any project they want right now — and they are. All have other films and TV shows due out for the rest of 2016 and into 2017, sooo can they get an idea of when they might be expected to hop over to the set of the futuristic thriller? Or nah?

When Lionsgate decided to take such an, ahem, divergent plan of action for the final film, plotting out the TV movie and possible spinoff series, were they just too busy coming up with fresh ideas to consider looping in the faces of the films? Woodley, Tris Prior herself and star of the entire franchise, knew nothing about the plans for Ascendant while she was promoting her big fall film, Snowden, at San Diego Comic-Con last month, telling Deadline, “Honestly, I was on a plane when all that happened and I landed, and I’m like ‘Whoa, what’s going on?!’ I need to talk and find out what the details are.” Yeah, girl.

Elgort seemed to be just a bit more clued in than Woodley, though. While promoting his new song, “Home Alone” in July, he told The Huffington Post, “I don’t really know much about it to be honest. I just heard about it a couple days ago. It’s obviously sad because the cast all really liked each other, but hopefully we can all work together on a different project. I love Shailene and I love Theo and everyone else in the cast. I’ll miss [pause] we didn’t say our goodbyes because we were expecting to do another one together.”

Teller remained a bit more optimistic when speaking to The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet for his newest film, War Dogs, saying, “It caught us all by surprise. At this point, it’s a different set of circumstances. We’ll see. I honestly haven’t talked to anybody. Things do change anytime they’re messing with something that was not the original intention. We all signed on for it in hopes that it’d be released in theaters, and we all had every intention of finishing [the franchise]. I’m not kidding when I say that you won’t find a single actor who worked in that franchise who would have anything bad to say about that experience. It’s all good. I’ve got nothing but love for everybody I’ve worked with on that franchise.”

Some actors will back out of the project, which is to be expected, now that it is not what they originally signed on to do. It makes sense. They could move on to exciting new adventures where they get to play new characters, work with new people and could be given more exposure, and even accolades. Fair. And could any of them technically be replaced in the film? Sorta? Yes? But also, no. Those 4 main characters all play a significant role in the way the story wraps up. Yes, it can be adjusted and most likely will have to be. But it would be awfully satisfying for fans to see their faves finish what they started. And what if half say yes and half say no? Is the movie even worth if it’s not an all-or-nothing cast?

The move to TV/streaming movie is great. The Divergent fanbase is mainly millennials, no strangers to watching any and everything they want on various computer/tablet/mobile screens. A spinoff series is entirely unnecessary, please no one pursue that. Making the best TV movie they can to wrap things up would be spectacular. Hopefully with some of the box office pressure off them, the production can ease up a bit as well. Yes, the story takes place in the future, but the CGI usage in this series has been…oppressive. What Lionsgate and the Divergent series producers need to focus on now is the cast. Loop ‘em in! Tell them something! Send them an outline, at the very least, and the script soon after. Lock in their calendar days. Let them know they are appreciated and needed and not simply the afterthoughts they seem to currently be treated as. Finish out strong. It’s what Tris would want.

[Where to stream Divergent]