Shailene Woodley On ‘Divergent’ TV Show: ‘I Didn’t Sign Up To Be In A TV Show’

Shailene Woodley is not eager to join the Divergent team in bringing the fourth sequel of the popular sci-fi dystopian franchise to life after Lionsgate decided to make it a television show instead a movie.

While she did not directly decline, Shailene Woodley, who starred as the main protagonist in the first three movies of the franchise, appears to be distancing herself from the fourth installment of Divergent, which is going to be a television show instead of a movie, Screen Rant reports.

During an interview while she was promoting her new film Snowden, Woodley sounded quite uninterested in the project even though she was part of the franchise from the first three installments shown in the big screen.

Shailene Woodley about #Ascendant pic.twitter.com/yraXSLoIYl

— Shailene Woodley (@PlanetShailene) September 8, 2016

When news first broke that the fourth installment of the franchise, titled Divergent: Ascendant, was going to be adapted into TV instead of cinemas, Shailene Woodley dodged questions if she would be reprising her role as Tris given the circumstances, though she was clearly surprised to hear the news.

“Honestly, I was on a plane when all that happened, and I landed and I’m like, ‘Whoa, what’s going on?!'” Deadline quoted her saying in July.

Like Woodley, her Divergent co-star Miles Teller expressed his disappointment at how it all turned out and told Hollywood Reporter how they “all signed on for [Ascendant] in hopes that it’d be released in theaters.”

Before Divergent, Hollywood has spent years building up a trend of movie adaptations for novels under the young adult (YA) genre. Because of this, the likes of Harry Potter, the Twilight Saga, and the Hunger Games were brought to the big screen to be enjoyed by fans of the books as well as those who aren’t.

All of the above-mentioned series were concluded in the big screen, which is why the downgrade laid out for Divergent‘s final installment was quite disappointing especially for its cast.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the first two films in the franchise, namely Divergent and Insurgent, were both box office hits, but the third installment in 2016 titled Allegiant came out as a flop.

Because of that, Lionsgate decided to wrap up the Divergent project in television where they also intend to set up a spin-off series.

The most recent news about the Ascendant TV series featured in Movie News Guide is that it would consist of 10 to 13 episodes, but there was no word on whether or not the show would retain some of the movie franchise’s stars.

Some fans are disappointed at how it turned out. Because of the change in media, the Divergent franchise is expected to end with a sizzle instead of a bang particularly since there is a big chance that the hot Theo James- Shailene Woodley tandem — which is 50 percent of the reason why people watched the past three films in the first place — will no longer be in it.

#TrisFour???????????? pic.twitter.com/BrqyWfwcqx

— Teog Ma?duru (@nutellam_demett) June 18, 2016

However, others are still open to the idea of having another set of faces to portray their favorite Divergent characters. There are a wide variety of candidates to portray the characters, some of whom are featured in an article by Australia Network News.

To replace Shailene Woodley as Tris Prior, the outlet picked out The Originals star Danielle Campbell who was described as an actress who can “play a tough character despite appearing vulnerable.”

Meanwhile, the outlet believes that Dominic Sherwood could very well act as Tobias “Four” Eaton, which was previously portrayed by Theo James.

Other artists listed in the article are mostly from other TV series, such as Annie Wersching from The Vampire Diaries and Once Upon a Time‘s Elizabeth Lail.

Of course, it’s still up to the showrunners to determine which stars are best suited for what role, and the best we could hope for is that the new cast would live up to — if not surpass — Shailene Woodley and Co.’s performances in the Divergent movies.

[Photo by Dave J. Hogan/Getty Images]