Although THE DIVERGENT SERIES didn't prove to be quite as popular at the box-office as some of its young-adult brethren, it did well enough. That all changed when the most recent film,THE DIVERGENT SERIES: ALLEGIANT, wound up making over $100 million less than its predecessor and scored some fairly negative reviews. THE DIVERGENT SERIES: ASCENDANT was set to wrap up the series next year, but the underperformance of ALLEGIANT apparently has Lionsgate looking at other options, including skipping the theater entirely and letting the series wrap up with a TV movie.
Variety got the scoop on the plan and report that Lionsgate is currently in early negotiations to produce ASCENDANT on the small-screen instead. That wouldn't exactly be the end of THE DIVERGENT SERIES however, as Lionsgate is hoping to then move from the TV movie directly into a standalone television series set in the same post-apocalyptic world. The idea is for them to finalize the storylines involving the current cast and then introduce a new cast, who would then keep the series going on either a traditional or streaming network.
Although Lionsgate obviously is hoping to keep Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ansel Elgort, and the rest of the gang onboard, it's not totally clear if they'd be up for a TV movie. That said, a deal has yet to have been made and until the ink is dry, anything could happen. I wasn't particularly a big fan of the series, but I do feel for any fans out there who were looking forward to seeing DIVERGENT wrap up on the big-screen next year.