Okay, so Shailene Woodley didn't exactly say "Nah, playa" to being part of Divergent's jump to TV, but she might as well have. A couple of months ago we learned Lionsgate was scrapping theatrical plans for the struggling franchise's fourth movie, Ascendant. Instead they would make the ballsy decision to move the finale to TV, starting as a movie then continuing in spinoffs. The big question has been whether or not the stars would be down for that. At least in the case of Woodley the answer appears to be no.
In a chat with ScreenRant while on the Snowden press tour, Woodley didn't sound like she has any interest in continuing on with Divergent as it moves to the small screen...
"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."
Now, this could all just be a negotiating ploy because we know Woodley isn't against TV per se. She's set to be a part of HBO's miniseries adaptation Big Little Lies, for instance. But she's not the only member of the cast to express doubts. Miles Teller didn't have good things to say about it last month, and Ansel Elgort implied to HuffPo that the cast would not be coming back. Has anybody thought to ask Mekhi Pfifer what he thinks? Oh, that's right, his character's dead so it doesn't matter. Forget it then. How about Maggie Q? Oh.
Anyway, a total recasting would be a disaster, so it may be in Lionsgate's best interests to just forget about Ascendant. Obviously nobody cares about it anyway, so it's not like they'll be pissing off audiences who are eagerly awaiting the conclusion. Their best bet may be to start over and reboot the whole thing as a TV event series. After that they can move forward with whatever spinoffs they feel are warranted.
