Why is there no 4th Divergent movie? Explained

Neil Burger's film Divergent was released on April 11, 2014. It is based on the novel of the same name by Veronica Roth, published in 2011. With a budget of 85 million, the film collected $288.9 million for the franchise as per IMDb.

Seeing its formidable success, a sequel named Insurgent was released on March 20, 2015. Insurgent collected $297.3 million against a budget of $52.2 million (as per IMDb), after which Allegiant was released on March 18, 2016. Unfortunately like the previous Divergent movies, Allegiant could not dominate the box office and collected just $179.2 million (as per IMDb), against an estimated budget of $110-142 million.

After Allegiant became the lowest-grossing movie in the Divergent series, Lionsgate had to consider what to do for the fourth movie and how to wrap up the series. With budget cuts, it was decided that the fourth film would not have a theatrical release. But why was Divergent 4 cancelled?

In July 2016, when it was decided that a TV movie would conclude the series, none of the cast members of the Divergent movie were interested in returning to the franchise for a TV movie and did not show interest in the spin-off series because the project was called off by Lionsgate and there is no 4th Divergent movie.

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Will there be another Divergent movie?

As of now, Lionsgate has no updates or plans to produce another film. Ascendant, the fourth installment of the series which was meant to conclude the story has been cancelled for the time being.

Allegiant ended with Beatrice exposing the bureau. The conclusion of the third movie differs from that of the third Roth book because, in the books, Woodley's character is shot by David while she is seen using a memory-erasing serum to stop the bureau. The fourth movie Ascendant, which is cancelled was supposed to tell the remaining story of Allegiant.

The entire Divergent series is based on the trilogy of young dystopian novels by Veronica Roth, published in 2011. The five books in the series are -

• Divergent
• Insurgent
• Allegiant
• Four: A Divergent Collection
• We Can Be Mended.

Although the film had a stellar cast, a good story, and solid box office collections initially, it never got good reviews. Let’s take Allegiant as an example, which has an IMDb rating of 5.7/10 and holds an 11% Tomatometer on rotten tomatoes.

Because of poor critic scores over the years and negative reviews, the cast members were demotivated and many of the actors even admitted that the franchise had lost its originality and way.

In an interview with Screen Rant, The Fault in Our Stars actress Shailene Woodley who stars as Beatrice Prior in the trilogy series said,

"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 involved, they may have changed their mind and may be doing something different, but I'm not necessarily interested in doing a television show."

The crew had originally signed up for a final film that would conclude the series and release in the theatres, but after Lionsgate made it to a TV movie, most of the cast decided not to return. The controversial decision to split Allegiant into two parts is also considered a reason, why the downfall of the series began.

Writer Veronica Roth talked about the controversy to PEOPLE in a 2023 interview and said,

"I mean, breaking things in two was all the rage at the time. That was why that decision was made. But at that point, I think I always felt peace about it just because I knew the movies were taking a different track than the books, and if you change the lead up, you change the ending. So I kind of felt like at that point ... I feel like that third movie ... it's its own thing."

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Allegiant is now streaming on Netflix.