When the first of the Divergent movies finally made its way to cinemas worldwide, fans of the ridiculously awesome young adult novel series were elated. “Divergent” was so immensely popular, earning over US$288 million worldwide against its budget of US$85 million, that it soon had its own cult following.
Billed as a cross between the new “The Hunger Games” and “Harry Potter”, the Divergent series is based on a dystopian and post-apocalyptic Chicago where people are divided into 5 distinct factions based on human virtues – Dauntless (the brave), Erudite (the intelligent), Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), and Amity (the peaceful).
An individual with equal attributes of multiple factions is called a Divergent. Because Divergents can think independently, the government cannot control them and they are considered threats to the existing social order.
In 2014’s “Divergent”, we saw how Beatrice “Tris” Prior (played by Shailene Woodley), a Divergent, uncovers a looming war which threatens everyone she loves. 2015’s “Insurgent” focused on how Tris and the mysterious Four (played by Theo James) search for allies and answers while being on the run after evading a coup from Erudite faction leader Jeanine and the rest of her faction.
To best prepare you for “The Divergent Series: Allegiant“, the 3rd installment of the Divergent film franchise, here are some fun facts about the series:
1. Production for “Divergent” aka “Catbird” was kept tightly under wraps
Despite it being based on a young adult novel series, the production for “Divergent” was kept tightly under wraps. In fact, everything about the film was super hush-hush. Virtually all production photography took place in Chicago; many of the interior locations were filmed at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios. While the cast and crew were working on the movie, they used the codename “Catbird” while filming public scenes to keep people from figuring out that production is taking place.
2. The author doesn’t know how far away into the future it is
Just how far away in the future are we talking about? Believe it or not, even author Veronica Roth doesn’t have an exact date for the Divergent series. She previously said, “The reason it’s not in there is because I am terrible at estimating time and how long it takes for certain things to happen and for changes to happen, so I just kept it deliberately ambiguous. When I tried to figure it out, I just stressed myself out, so I think it’s just really far in the future.”
3. Learning to rough it and tough it like a boss
The cast of “Divergent” did a lot of their own fight scenes and the skills didn’t come naturally. Apparently, they went through insane training to prep for the fight scenes – the cast only had 5 weeks to train when in reality it should have taken 3 months! On average, the main actors had 90 minutes of cardio and stretching followed by 15 minutes of knife training daily. As a result, Shailene “earned” some serious battle scars from performing some of her own stunts.
4. It’s “Allegiant” and “Ascendant” instead of “Part 1” and “Part 2”
The 3rd film, based on the novel Allegiant, was initially announced as a single film. But it was later decided that it will be split into 2 parts, making it the 4th movie franchise to do so, after with “Harry Potter”, “The Twilight Saga”, and “The Hunger Games”. Instead of being named “Allegiant: Part 1” and “Allegiant: Part 2”, the 3rd installment is just “The Divergent Series: Allegiant“, focusing on the 1st half of the book. The 4th film will focus on the 2nd half of the book, but will be called “The Divergent Series: Ascendant”.
5. “The Divergent Series: Ascendant” had its release date pushed back
The final film in the series, “The Divergent Series: Ascendant”, will be released on 9th June 2017, where it will face stiff competition from Paramount’s “World War Z 2” and Universal’s reboot of “The Mummy”. It was originally going to be released on 24th March 2017, but in December 2015, Lionsgate placed the upcoming “Power Rangers” reboot in Ascendant’s former release date. On 8th February 2016, it was confirmed that director Robert Schwentke will not return to helm the final film.
We’ll leave you now with the trailer for “The Divergent Series: Allegiant”. Enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G0C-vMHcQY
“The Divergent Series: Allegiant” is out in a cinema near you now.
Sources: BuzzFeed, Useless Daily, Teen.com, Divergent Wiki, Divergent Factions, Variety.
