A few months back, Lionsgate announced that the final chapter of its misbegotten YA series Divergent would be skipping movie theatres entirely, and instead be heading for TV, functioning as the start of a potential series based on the show.
This news took the star of the films, Shailene Woodley, by surprise, and when an E! News reporter approached her at Comic Con to ask what was happening with Ascendant, she replied “I know as much as you do.”
In a recent interview with Screen Rant, while promoting her new movie Snowden, Woodley was asked about the future of the Divergent series, and to clarify whether she’s on board with the final film, wherever and whenever it happens. She replied:
“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 in involved, they may have changed their mind and may be doing something different, but I’m not necessarily interested in doing a television show.”
Without knowing exactly what Woodley’s contract says, the phrase ‘not necessarily’ implies that there are probably some heavy behind-the-scenes negotiations going on about whether or not she’ll return.
Woodley’s co-star Miles Teller was similarly vague about the future of the series in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, saying that he was not informed of the decision to forego a theatrical release until the news hit the internet:
“It caught us all by surprise,” he explained. “At this point, it’s a different set of circumstances … We’ll see. I honestly haven’t talked to anybody.”
Will we be seeing an extremely resentful Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller phoning in their performances in an Ascendant TV movie some time in 2018? Depends how good their lawyers are, I guess.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter.
Photo: Jim Spellman / Getty.
