Although the film remains on track for its June 9, 2017 release, The Divergent Series: Ascendant is in need of a new director. Deadline reports that Robert Schwentke, who directed both Insurgent and the upcoming Allegiant, will not return for the final chapter. According to the outlet, Robert Schwentke was simply in need of a break after directing back to back franchise installments. A new director is currently being sought and should be announced soon.
Robert Schwentke’s The Divergent Series: Allegiant, the upcoming third installment in the blockbuster action adventure franchise stars Golden Globe nominee Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer, and the Oscar-nominated Naomi Watts. Golden Globe-nominated actor Jeff Daniels has also joined the ensemble cast for the third and fourth films in the franchise with a list of returning cast members that also includes Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Maggie Q, Keiynan Lonsdale and Jonny Weston, as well as Mekhi Phifer and Daniel Dae Kim. Additional new cast members include Nadia Hilker and Bill Skarsgård as well.
Based on author Veronica Roth’s New York Times best-seller, Allegiant is being directed by Robert Schwentke from a screenplay by Noah Oppenheim and Adam Cooper & Bill Collage and Stephen Chbosky. Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher are producing the film through their Red Wagon Entertainment banner along with Pouya Shahbazian. Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman are executive producing through their Mandeville Films banner along with Barry Waldman and Neil Burger. Erik Feig, Co-President of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, Gillian Bohrer, Lionsgate’s EVP of Production & Development, and Matt Janzen, Lionsgate’s VP, Production & Development, are overseeing the project for the studio.
The Divergent series of books have been perennial New York Times best-sellers since 2011. Book sales of the Divergent trilogy have surged to over 34 million copies worldwide, up from 17 million at the time of Divergent’s March 21, 2014 release. “Allegiant” sold 455,000 copies on its first day of release in 2013 to break a company record for Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins Publishers. Pre-orders for “Allegiant” exceeded those of any book in the history of HarperCollins.
The first two Divergent films have grossed more than $550 million at the global box office and are Lionsgate’s highest-grossing films domestically outside The Hunger Games and Twilight franchises.
