Finished May 2019

The Sad Story of The Divergent Series

How an initially promising franchise of films imploded from the inside out

By Zac Langridge

Chapter 4: Buildup to Failure

From May 2015 to March 2016, numerous key factors would build up like an army of archers, bows drawn and pointing towards Allegiant’s release. These factors are long and complicated, but they’re key to understanding just what caused the spectacular collapse of Divergent.

Interestingly, one of the major factors took place, not in the year that followed Insurgent’s release, but around the time Divergent was still filming. Veronica Roth released Allegiant, the final novel in her trilogy in October of 2013. It was positively received by book critics, but the response from the fans was another story.
After the book was released, angry tweets and messages began appearing online directed towards Veronica Roth as detailed in a famous article. Fans of the trilogy who were eagerly awaiting to see how the story would end, were outraged and upset at many of the revelations and twists that took place in the book. Among several of those, was the idea that the Allegiant novel renders the events of the previous two books largely meaningless. The book's slower pace and largely different tone also threw readers off guard, in a very similar fashion to the reaction to Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay. And above all, most upset reactions were initiated by a very, very divisive shock ending which I won’t spoil.
The result of Allegiant’s reaction was that it left a bad taste in the mouths of many diehard fans, to the point where some expressed a sense of betrayal by the author. A group of them even expressed desire to boycott the movies, especially Allegiant. Many didn’t want to relive the strong sense of emotion they felt after reading the book, while others wanted to demonstrate their anger towards Roth by refusing to pay and see the film. Whether the boycott was a real thing or not is unclear, but one can’t help but wonder if the poor fan reaction to the novel helped slam the lid shut on the series’ coffin.

Found this online - thought it was funny (I actually liked the
Allegiant book, though).

In September of 2015, the second Maze Runner film, The Scorch Trials, dropped in cinemas. And it was around this time that the fatigue that had been swirling around YA adaptations for some time, began to settle in. The second film in Fox’s franchise grossed less than the first installment, with a worldwide total of $81 million in comparison to the $102 million that the first film grossed. And although fans were generally satisfied, critics who initially praised the first film, gave its follow-up far more mixed reviews as well. It certainly seemed as though YA movies were everywhere in the mid-2010s - some good, some bad. Some mediocre. But there was most certainly an oversaturation that was being felt sorely by audiences. Declining grosses were becoming apparent with most franchises, and it wouldn’t only affect Divergent and The Maze Runner.
As 2015 drew to a close, Mockingjay - Part 2 was released, drawing The Hunger Games films to a breathtaking success of a closure. Except….it wasn’t a breathtaking success. The final film underperformed at the box office, making a mildly disappointing $101 million in comparison to the $121 million of the previous film’s grosses. The downward trajectory of grosses was now even more apparent than ever, and while Mockingjay - Part 2 received more favourable reviews than Part 1, it certainly seemed as though the underwhelming reaction to the previous movie caused by the two-part splitting of the story, had hurt its follow-up. It appeared as though the final release of The Hunger Games series and the closure of the year 2015 signified the death of the YA film genre. With an oversaturation of franchises that many were deeming too similar to Hunger Games, or too mediocre in comparison, it certainly appeared as though the initially fresh appeal of sci-fi YA adaptations had worn off. And if the final film of The Hunger Games - a franchise that many considered to be the gold standard of such a genre - could be affected by the fatigue, then there was surely no hope for the other contenders.
This was pretty much confirmed by the 2016 release of Columbia Pictures’ The Fifth Wave. The film was expected to be the kickstarter for a new franchise based off of Rick Yancey’s trilogy of novels, however it was largely panned by critics and tanked at the box-office. Any hopes of a sequel were obliterated. If The Fifth Wave had come out earlier when audiences were hungrier for young-adult sci-fi films, would the film have been a success regardless of its critical mauling? It’s hard to tell, however it certainly seemed as though the fan-base had less of an impact than it did for the other three franchises. Regardless, the failure of the movie certainly would spell the end of the dystopian YA genre in movies, and would be a bad omen for the fast-approaching release of Allegiant.

These franchises were only three of many YA franchises in
the mid 2010s! Fatigue was inevitable.

A mere two months after the release of the second film, production moved back to Atlanta to start filming for Allegiant, with Robert Schwentke once again at the helm. Pre-production had been completed simultaneously during post-production for Insurgent, and the film’s script had been written by a team-effort of four different (credited) screenwriters. Among them was Maze Runner penner Noah Oppenheimer. Once again, some new names were brought on as cast. Jeff Daniels would be the biggest name to join. Swedish actor Bill Skarsgard, who would go on to play Pennywise in It (2017) also joined, along with Nadia Hilker and Andy Bean. Other than that, much of the same cast and crew would return for the penultimate film. Filming for Allegiant reportedly started in May and concluded in August. It was the shortest production date for any Divergent movie so far, taking into account the fact that both prior installments reportedly had gone through reshoots, while Allegiant apparently had gone through none.

Unlike the previous films which had been heavily publicized, the production of the third film was oddly secretive in comparison. Very little was revealed about it. The fact that it was the penultimate film in a franchise that the studio was expecting to be hyped up may have been a contributing factor to that.
However many may start to wonder if the apparent and rumoured production issues were a cause of this strange behind-the-scenes silence.
Please note that the next paragraph contains heavy speculation. I have no confirmation that any of these theories are true!

Woodley and Kravitz on the set of 2016's Allegiant

Many knew full-well that there was no need to divide Allegiant’s adaptation into two parts, and that it was done solely to force more money out of audiences. When watching the final movie, it appears that no-one was realising and experiencing this more than the screenwriters themselves. Oppenheimer and the three other screenwriters were having to somehow squeeze a full movie, out of half a book that barely had enough story to do so. Not only this, but they were having to deal with the consequences of the changes made to Insurgent that would carry over into their movie. Their only option was to deviate from Veronica Roth’s novel even further to cope with said-changes, and expand the story to fit two movies. In essence, they would be completely rewriting the story and all of its arcs to fit their requirements.
It’s unknown just how long the group of writers spent on developing their script for Allegiant, but one gets the impression that it was an incredibly short period of time. One also gets the impression that the writers had little idea where the story was headed for the fourth film, Allegiant - Part 2 (soon to be renamed Ascendant), due to their near complete rewriting of Roth’s story. Douglas Wick cited that “Allegiant, if you've read the book, has (….) two climaxes. One is a climax in Chicago, which is basically for the lives of everyone in the city, and the other one is Tris facing off with David in the Bureau. It just felt like we had plenty of story to do this one, then a lot more story to tell for the final collision.” Suddenly it seemed as though the two-part finale wasn’t adapted from the original novel, but loosely inspired by it.
One must surely feel sympathy towards the four writers of Allegiant. They had effectively been forced by both the producers’ and studio’s decisions to divert from the core of the series, and delve into near-original material that hadn’t been written yet. If anything, the bare minimum of the book’s plot-line would be present in Allegiant, and entirely new storylines would have to be invented. It’s unknown as to what the Ascendant film would’ve been like, but it’s easy to imagine that over 50 percent of the movie would’ve been completely original material invented by the filmmakers. Said Douglas Wick of the changes: The movies we didn't want to make were those annoying ones in which they just stop in the middle of the story. So we very much wanted the movie to work as a separate piece." Essentially in what appears to be mere months, four different writers had to scramble to figure out how Allegiant would work with their guide being a book that wasn’t appropriate for the two-part finale format. On top of that, they would need to write competent material. You be the judge of whether the Allegiant script was any good or not.

The cast of Allegiant prepare for a crucial action scene

The next hurdle that the third film would face has pretty much been confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter, so the next points I will make hold more validity.
Robert Schwentke, director of Insurgent, had also signed on to direct the third and fourth films in the series. As mentioned before, it was a similar strategy that Lionsgate used for Hunger Games; director Francis Lawrence signed on to direct the second film, and then agreed to film the two-part installments afterwards. With the Mockingjay films, Lawrence and his crew would produce and film both movies at the same time, effectively in one supersized production. It would’ve been like shooting one six-hour long movie, except it would be released in two parts - a beginning and an end. This would be used to save money, as they would be able to use the same sets, costumes, locations and production companies for both films, instead of letting them go after the first film finished and then rebuilding/rehiring them when the second film got underway.
For some reason though, the studio and producers decided to do Divergent differently. They made the decision to film the two-part finale, Allegiant and Ascendant as two movies, with two completely separate productions. Instead of shooting simultaneously, they would shoot them one after the other. It wasn’t a very cost effective decision, and to make matters worse, Schwentke appeared to be suffering from the same post-filming exhaustion that Neil Burger experienced during Divergent. As stated before, in such a franchise production on a sequel often starts exactly when a preceding film is in post-production, putting extreme pressure on the already drained filmmakers involved. Neil Burger opted out of directing Insurgent for this exact reason, and now Schwentke who was locked into directing Allegiant immediately after Insurgent, was apparently feeling its effects quite severely.
One can’t really blame Allegiant’s faults all on its director. As mentioned before, the screenplay was subpar and Lionsgate had put its crew under an extremely tight schedule with little wiggle-room. However the exhaustion that Robert Schwentke was carrying into Allegiant directly from the aftermath of Insurgent seemed to bleed into his direction of the penultimate film. A production source claimed that “....between visual effects — which were on an impossible schedule — and music, he was working seven days a week, then had to start work on the next one….He put on weight. He was really wiped....” When one watches the third film after reading such reports, the final product is quite revealing. Many moments in Allegiant appear to have had little-to-no direction, or competent direction at that. There is a lack of enthusiasm and passion that was - for all its flaws - even on display in Insurgent. One has to wonder if his drained state of mind may have had to do with Allegiant’s uninspired and often apparently lazy direction. Many of the cast members give off their worst performances in the series. Shailene Woodley comes off more as a bored high-schooler in a romcom, rather than the brave warrior she was in the previous two films. Ansel Elgort has some cringe-inducingly awful moments of line delivery, and Naomi Watts would receive a Worst Supporting Actress nomination for her performance. Other particular examples of this include a young boy struggling to remember his acting abilities - er, sorry - his father after having his memory wiped, and an infamous trial scene with some extras trying and spectacularly failing to seem menacing and bloodthirsty.

The lack of character growth and nonsensical worldbuilding can be attributed to the screenwriters, but in any scenes without flashy action and visuals, there is an overwhelming level of cliched and uninspired direction to it all. Once again, the focus appeared to be all on the look of the film. The filmmakers appeared to want an even more science fiction-type twist to Allegiant, and the result was the most CGI-heavy film in the Divergent Series. Woodley elaborated in an interview that in “the first film, all of the sets were built. This time it was 50% with the actors and 50% added in post-production (....) It was hard to imagine what it was going to look like.” When watching the film and its behind-the-scenes featurettes, one does get the idea that much of it was filmed indoors, on a soundstage with most of the blue-screen blanks filled in later. Due to much of the film’s new locations being “not specified in the book”, Wick and Fisher once again appeared to grant Schwentke free creative control to make Allegiant as futuristic as possible. It was, according to the producers, “a Schwentke contribution to make the Bureau as futuristic as it is, in terms of more technology….”, and the overgrown abandoned remains of Illinois outside Chicago was reimagined into a barren desert-like wasteland drenched in red acid rain. Accompanied by a barrage of personal defense drones, plasma globes, and aircrafts that are never mentioned in the original novel, the resulting filmmaker-invented futurism required a huge increase in CGI and visual effects. Once again the grounded, almost rustic aesthetic that Neil Burger originally established for Divergent, appeared to have been either forgotten about or ignored entirely here. And to make matters even worse, the cast was now being upstaged by the superimposed graphics that the visual effects teams were desperately churning out before the March release date. A perfect example of this would be this wonderful sentence in a page dedicated to the movie: “Like the Fear Landscapes in Divergent and the simulation scenarios in Insurgent, drones define a signature technology advance in Allegiant.” It appears as if the filmmakers had completely misunderstood what drew people to the books and films in the first place. Fancy effects and beautiful designs weren’t part of the initial appeal for Divergent, but yet here was a Divergent film that appeared to have had more effort put into its design than its characters’ motivations and dialogue.

Schwentke directs Woodley onset

Schwentke’s reported exhaustion, and focus on visuals over characters reportedly led to conflict behind the scenes. In early February 2016, it was revealed that he had exited the franchise entirely and had declined to direct Ascendant. Considering his situation it was no surprise he’d decided to exit. He had after all, directed two multi-million dollar pictures back-to-back and had yet to direct another whilst simultaneously completing pre-production on Allegiant. This was cited as the sole reason for his exit, as he wanted to spend more time with his family. “It was just exhaustion. In his deal, there was a trigger time where he had to decide if he was going forward. He was very torn, because he loves his team. But it wasn't possible.” However, not long after the actual release of the third film, The Hollywood Reporter released an article that detailed another reason why he might’ve decided to leave the project. Star of the franchise, Shailene Woodley herself was reportedly “dissatisfied” with his work, and was unhappy with the way the franchise was being driven forward with no time to polish scripts. The article’s source claims that "she was complaining about him, but she was equally complaining about the speed of the movies and not taking the time to get a script right." It’s unknown if these reports are true, but they certainly seem pretty legitimate. It’s not hard to believe that an actress who stars in a massive franchise and, as a result, lives and breathes the source material in a way, would be unhappy with the diversion from said-material as well as the vision of the original director (who, after all, was the one who cast Woodley in the franchise in the first place).
So with Schwentke leaving the project, Ascendant would need a new director. It must’ve been a particularly urgent rush to find a new helmer, considering Ascendant should’ve been starting pre-production around about that time, and any delays would force them to push back the release date from March 2017 (which actually did end up happening). In that same month it was announced that Lee Toland Krieger, the director of The Age of Adeline (2015), would be the one to finish off the franchise. It would reportedly be Krieger’s first blockbuster, as he hadn’t directed a major tentpole film before, with most of his major past credits being lower budgets pictures released in film festivals (some of which ended up winning awards). Interestingly, Woodley appeared to have the final say in Krieger’s hiring, as The Hollywood Reporter’s article states that he was brought on only after the actress gave her stamp of approval. The source said that "the different contestants were discussed with her (....) and we knew he was someone who was sensitive to actors." Regarding the choice of director, Woodley stated: “....he hasn't done anything action-wise, so I think that will enable us to have the story revolve around character more instead of action.”

An early teaser poster for Allegiant

A teaser for Allegiant was released in September of 2015, and a main trailer in November. The main responses from fans were mixed, with much of the base appearing to be in a state of confusion. Although half of the fanbase appeared to be hyped for the film (which is to be expected from such a franchise), the other half appeared to be off-put by the bizarre sci-fi angle that the film was going for, and how none of it appeared to be from the book at all. By the time a third trailer was released in early 2016, even the most hyped fan responses weren’t enough to silence the rumblings of a growing backlash towards the direction the franchise had appeared to be taking since Insurgent’s release.
One of the catastrophic mistakes that the filmmakers made I feel, was the decision to set the majority of the movie in a barren lifeless desert, for one very important reason. The second Maze Runner film, The Scorch Trials was set in a vastly similar location, with a vastly similar setup and premise as Allegiant. With The Scorch Trials not even a year old at that point, and with many audiences beaten down by dystopian YA franchises, the idea to set and market Allegiant around the premise of the characters leaving their society to enter another post-apocalyptic society, was a decision that very well may’ve hurt the film in hindsight. Cynical audiences fed up with YA movies would’ve probably looked at the Allegiant trailers and thought, “Welp. Now they’re gone from ripping of Hunger Games to ripping off Maze Runner.” Or, “Meh. I’ve already seen movies like it. I’m gonna skip.”

Essentially as its release approached, Allegiant was in a worst-case scenario position. Very little was done to help the movie’s reputation and if anything, the producers had doubled down on the mistakes the previous installment had made. Wick and Fisher were betting on the fans being the core audience for the movies, and yet here was a fan-base split down the middle, with many feeling betrayed and frustrated that their favourite books were being butchered seemingly without a care. And the audiences wouldn’t save the movie either. After sitting through Hunger Games, Twilight, Maze Runner (which was still unfinished at this point), and The Fifth Wave, would they really feel any desire to see another cash-in on a genre trend that had died off at the end of the previous year?

The stage was set. Everything was in place. All arrows were pointing at Allegiant, just waiting for its March release date. And when that release date arrived, many would simply sit on their couches at home and watch the fireworks from afar.

To be concluded...