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DIVERGENT: ASCENDANT Will Skip Theaters for a TV Movie & TV Show Spinoff

Shailene Woodley The Divergent Series Insurgent

Divergent: Ascendant Becoming TV Movie / Spinoff Series in lieu of Theatrical Release

In surprising move, Summit Entertainment, instead of releasing The Divergent Series: Ascendant in two parts in-theaters in June 2017 as was planned, the film series’ storylines will be wrapped up in a TV Movie instead. Summit already cut the budget of Ascendant after the box office disappointment of The Divergent Series: Allegiant. By making The Divergent Series: Ascendant into a TV Movie instead of theatrical releases (with all of the expenses that come along with it), Summit is further cutting the budget for the film (s). The TV movie will then lead into a new, dystopia TV series set in the same universe. There is no word yet if any of characters from the film series will be characters in the TV show spin-off.

Summit and Lionsgate Films obviously have no faith that the last two proposed films for The Divergent Series will perform well at the box office.

There is no word yet if any of the principal cast that took part part in The Divergent Series: Allegiant will take part in the wrap-up, TV movie The Divergent Series: Ascendant. That cast included: Zoë Kravitz, Mekhi Phifer, Daniel Dae Kim, Nadia Hilker, Bill Skarsgård, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Maggie Q, Keiynan Lonsdale, Jonny Weston, Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Octavia Spencer, Naomi Watts, Jeff Daniels, and Ray Stevenson.

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The movie industry is risk adverse and Summit seems to be cutting their losses while betting that a successful Sci-fi TV series can be brought to life.

Summit and Lionsgate are most-likely calculating that a TV movie can bring Divergent and Insurgent‘s fans to the small screen. They hope that the TV movie can leverage those fans into the TV series. The television production arm of Lionsgate will be handling the production of the Divergent TV series.

It’s a clever move by Summit and Lionsgate. They hope to create a successful spin-off TV series like Marvel did with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The miscalculation on Summit and Liongate’s part is that Marvel lead into Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. after the box office phenomenon The Avengers. Summit and Lionsgate are leading into a Divergent TV series after the box office disappointment Allegiant. People usually don’t want to buy into more of something after you have left them with a sore taste in their mouth.

The Divergent book series and films involve a society that “defines its citizens by their social and personality-related affiliation with five different factions, which removes the threat of anyone exercising independent will and threatening the population’s safety. Beatrice Prior, who later changes her name to Tris, an Abnegation-born and Dauntless transfer, must figure out her life as a Divergent, while concealing her true nature, and living with the danger of being killed if it is discovered by the Erudite and Dauntless leaders.

Leave your thoughts on The Divergent Series: Ascendant becoming a TV Movie, skipping a theatrical release, and the possible TV series spinoff below in the comments section. Readers seeking more movie news can visit our Movie News Page, our Movie News Twitter Page, our Movie News Facebook Page, and our Movie News Google+ Page. Readers seeking more TV movie news can visit our TV Movie News Page. Readers seeking more TV show news can visit our TV Show News Page, our TV Show News Google+ Page, and our TV Show News Facebook Page. Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, and Facebook.

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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