If you're sad that Allegiant, the third Divergent movie, is the last movie in the Divergent Series, think again. The series, based off the trilogy of books by young adult author Veronica Roth, is actually going to have four films. Yep, you heard that right: Allegiant might not be called Allegiant Part 1, but that's essentially what it is. Over two years ago, it was announced that the final Divergent book would be split into two films, similar to what Lionsgate did with Mockingjay, the final installment of The Hunger Games series. With Allegiant to be released on March 18, fans are wondering, when is the next Divergent movie coming out?
Ascendant, the final Divergent Series film, is currently scheduled for release on June 9, 2017. Though the film's release date was originally announced for March 24, 2017, only one year after the release of Allegiant, the final film was pushed back. It's unclear what, exactly, caused the scheduling change. It could be simple studio politics, but it might also have something to do with the fact that Robert Schwentke, the director behind Insurgent and Allegiant, stepped down from directing the fourth film. Age of Adaline director Lee Toland Krieger is reportedly in talks to replace Schwentke as director, and Ascendant is set to start filming in the summer of 2016.
A change in director isn't the only shakeup for the Divergent series, though. Although the final two Divergent films were originally announced as Allegiant Parts 1 & 2, reflecting the title of the final book upon which it is based, the title of the second film was later changed to Ascendant. According to the initial report by MTV, both films will still be based on the original Allegiant text, but that with the second film, filmmakers plan on elaborating on the original story. This could mean a number of different things. Perhaps filmmakers have decided to change the ending of Allegiant, which was extremely polarizing for fans of the books. (I won't spoil it here.) Or maybe filmmakers want to set up a possible spinoff series — Roth herself penned a spinoff book titled Four: A Divergent Collection, a sort of retelling of the series from Four's perspective.
When they announced the change in September, filmmakers revealed new poster art for both Allegiant and Ascendant. The tag line for Ascendant reads — "The End Is Never What You Expect" — could signify a possible divergence from the source material. (Sorry, I couldn't help myself.) Whatever it means, fans are going to have to wait until Ascendant's release in June 2017 to find out.
Images: Summit Entertainment; Giphy (2)
