Started December 2018

The Sad Story of The Divergent Series

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

By Zac Langridge

Chapters:

The YA Genre’s New Contestant

New Talent and Release

Sequel

Buildup to Failure

How to Kill a Franchise

Reflection/Who’s to Blame?

Introduction

In the long history of Hollywood, there have been flops. There have been box office disasters, movies that lost a studio so much money that they ultimately went bankrupt or were landed in financial trouble. However as the American film industry becomes more and more attached to franchises and big-name, high-profile properties that, in their eyes could spawn potential sequels and spinoffs that are all financially supported by an unwavering dedicated audience, the higher the dangers are of forgetting the fundamentals to keep audiences engaged.
And in recent years, no higher example has there been than The Divergent Series.
Based on the bestselling novels by Veronica Roth, the Divergent franchise was kicked off in 2014 with its makers, Lionsgate, convinced that it would become the next big thing. But down the line, something went clearly very wrong. As of the 23rd of December, 2018, the Starz cable network reported to Buzzfeed News that the planned final entry in the series, Ascendant (originally scheduled for a March 2017 theatrical release) was apparently cancelled entirely from its reported TV movie status.

How did this happen, and why? How did a planned franchise with high-profile actors, passionate producers, and a dedicated loving fanbase deteriorate so spectacularly?
In this piece, I am going to go through the long and fascinating story of the series’ birth and production, the overall story of the YA genre’s boom in the 2010s, and the resulting buildup of factors that I personally feel, are responsible for the failure of the Divergent franchise.


Chapter 1: The YA Genre’s New Contestant

The Divergent trilogy was written by American author Veronica Roth. Published between 2011 and 2013, its three main novels (Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant) revolve around 16 year-old Beatrice Prior, who lives in a dystopian Chicago that is split into factions determined by different personality traits. The series was a bestseller, with many hailing it’s strong characters, rich worldbuilding and - along with it - subtle metaphors for modern society as the successor to Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. The books were generally praised by critics and garnered a strong fanbase. By the fall of 2013, the first two books had sold over 5 million copies worldwide, proving her trilogy (regardless of what some readers may feel) to be a hit.
Perhaps enough of a hit to warrant a big-screen adaption.

Veronica Roth's Divergent trilogy

Hollywood likes to follow trends. Trends are safe, and trends are profitable. If mainstream audiences are leaning towards a certain style/genre (ect) of film, studios tend to notice this and attempt to capitalise on said-trend by mimicking its success to ensure that they don’t take unnecessary risks that could prove unsuccessful. Once the trend dies, Hollywood moves on to the next trend (eg: sci-fi adventure movies after the release of Star Wars (1977), or shared cinematic universes after The Avengers (2012).)
In the early 2010s, the trend was leaning towards adaptations of young-adult books. Films geared towards teenagers that portrayed said-age group rebelling against oppressing societies in a largely post-apocalyptic setting, were proving to be the bread-and-butter of studio films at that time. The two main franchises around that time were Twilight and The Hunger Games, both based off popular book series, and both distributed by the same studio: Lionsgate.

While Lionsgate and its underlier, Summit Entertainment reigned with their adaptations proving to be big box-office successors, other studios tried time and time again to replicate the success of the genre, by acquiring other properties to adapt. Many were unsuccessful. Chasing success, and trying to fabricate the quality of previously made films and series just isn’t the same as taking time to craft a well-made film that clicks with the right audiences. A famous example would be Sony’s The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013), which was planned to be a franchise, but never got past its first installment.
As other studios failed to replicate Lionsgate’s success, the studio that kicked off the YA trend looked to continue their list of YA franchises. Divergent seemed to be their best bet. Since it was in the vein of the two previous series they had acquired, Lionsgate was convinced that this was the way to go.

Author Veronica Roth sold the Divergent film rights in March 2011 to Summit Entertainment. Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher would utilize their production company, Red Wagon Entertainment to produce the films, which would also be distributed by Lionsgate. Wick and Fisher, married since 1986, would also be the credited producers of the films. In 2012 it was revealed that Neil Burger, director of Limitless (2011), would helm the first film. Casting began that same year, with Shailene Woodley (nominated for best actress in The Descendants) cast as the main character Tris Prior, while Theo James was cast as the second lead, Tobias Eaton. Other cast members included Kate Winslet, Miles Teller and Ansel Elgort. Filming began in April 2013, with the film scheduled to be released in March the following year.
One notices a recurring theme that resonates throughout the production and publicity of the first film: that being the dedication and passion that the cast and crew have for the source material.
Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher clearly have a love for Roth’s books and the story she tells. It’s very evident from interviews they took, that they genuinely cared from day one. In an interview Fisher proclaimed that the “movies are held up as a beacon on the hill. Because the book is so successful we already have an audience for the movie, which is a wonderful feeling. We know people want to see it…..Red Wagon got sent the manuscript by the agent before it was published. We read it and saw a phenomenally interesting voice and premise, with rich veins of identity and conformity.”
Similarly, director Neil Burger displayed a real sense of showmanship and respect for the story he was going to adapt. He explained, regarding the book, that “something really struck me in it, and I was in. You still have to present your take on it, which I did.” Regardless of what people may think of the first film, Burger’s care for the story and characters bleeds onto the screen in the final product. Among many of the boundaries he pushed, he managed to include the infamous zip-lining scene - an important character defining moment in the book - that was originally excluded from the script. He also pushed for other scenes that were cut out. “Those have to be in the movie. They’re such iconic scenes. And I understood why they tried to cut them out when they were developing the script, but they had to be in there. So often, it was trying to fight to get everything into the movie, which was the real challenge.” He even went as far as to keep and film the most gruesome scene in the book, which was cut for the movie’s rating to be kept at PG-13.

Burger directing Woodley on the set of 2014's Divergent

As Divergent’s production was underway, the second film in Lionsgate’s Hunger Games series, Catching Fire, was released. It was a smash hit, and in a rare twist, critics hailed it as being an improvement over its predecessor. A sequel surpassing the original in a franchise could only mean that interest in the property was building. After the success of the Twilight franchise, Lionsgate had placed their next bet on The Hunger Games, and it had looked as if it had already paid off. Clearly the YA genre craze wasn’t going away, so a third time’s a charm. Lionsgate could either leave it as is, or they could boost Divergent to grade A franchise status. Ultimately they decided to increase the budget for Divergent from $40 million to $85 million.
Notably, back in 2012, Lionsgate also made the decision to split the final Hunger Games adaption of Mockingjay into a two-part finale, a tactic originally used on the final Harry Potter adaption of The Deathly Hallows. The overall motive for doing such a thing, was to create a fully fleshed-out cinematic experience that wasn’t rushed or clunky - since J.K Rowling’s final novel was a total of 607 pages. However Suzanne Collins’ final novel was only 440 pages long in comparison. Lionsgate was the only other studio aside from Warner Bros. to attempt the two-part finale move, initially with the final Twilight installment. Now with The Hunger Games thriving, it seemed like their move to split its finale up had little to do with creative urges, and more to do with milking a brand and craze for all its worth. One could almost see the eyes of the studios glinting at the prospect of making more money for their companies to survive and thrive. With Divergent next in line to carry on the YA franchise tradition, the executives’ gazes were fixed on the success of the first film.
Simultaneously, 20th Century Fox was preparing their answer to Twilight and The Hunger Games: an adaptation of James Dashner’s Maze Runner series. This would star a male lead, a difference from Lionsgate’s three female-led franchises. Meanwhile, Columbia Pictures were preparing their own adaptation of Rick Yancey’s The Fifth Wave, set for release much later on in 2016. As of 2013, it seemed as though the young-adult adaptation craze would never wear out, and different studios were picking up different properties to capitalize on its success.

But nothing lasts forever.
Time would tell just how long its grip over audiences would remain.

To be continued...