As I’ve mentioned a few times before, I’ve completely given up on the increasingly silly Divergent franchise. And now it seems, so has its star. You may recall the recent news that in light of the last film in the franchise, The Divergent Series: Allegiant, failing at the box office as well getting trounced by critics, Lionsgate decided to minimize its potential losses by slashing the budget of the upcoming fourth film, Ascendant, and finishing off the story with a TV movie and spinoff series rather than another expensive tentpole feature film that could once again end up in the red.
But there’s a slight problem with that plan. The last few years may have seen a marked shift in quality so that TV is now just as, if not even more prestigious than big Hollywood productions, but that doesn’t mean that all big time movie stars want slum it down in TV land. Stars like Shailene Woodley, who played lead character Triss in all the Divergent movies thus far. As she explained to Screenrant in a recent interview, the studio’s new plan is not what she signed up for.
Last I heard they were trying to make it into a television show. 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.
Ouch. It doesn’t help that co-star, and probably the franchise’s other biggest name, Miles Teller, has also been very non-committal about Lionsgate’s plans. At least with him it was just a case of just being caught by surprise by the change in direction, and that he hadn’t spoken to anybody from the studio about it yet. With Woodley though it really sounds like she’s not down at all. So how do you finish your franchise without your lead actress? Luckily, that’s not a problem that I have to think about.
Last Updated: September 13, 2016
