“The Divergent Series,” comprised of 2014’s “Divergent,” 2015’s “Insurgent,” and 2016’s “Allegiant,” features an absolute banger of a cast. In addition to Shailene Woodley, you’ll get appearances from decade-younger versions of actors who have since gone on to international fame. Theo James, Jai Courtney, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, and Ansel Elgort all pop up in the first movie alone. Kate Winslet also gets to shine as the villain, with fellow icons Octavia Spencer and Naomi Watts appearing in the sequel. By the third entry, audiences even got a little Bill Skarsgård and Jeff Daniels thrown in for good measure.
If you’re brand new to the series, though, prepare for some disappointment. The franchise infamously ended on a cliffhanger after “Allegiant” failed to muster up “Mockingjay” money at the box office or the sort of critical reception that you’d hope for, leading to the cancelation of the proposed fourth film. This was sort of a big deal, considering that the studio had purposely split the last book in the series into two movies a la “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” which left fans feeling abandoned and bummed out when a conclusion failed to materialize. They weren’t the only ones, either — when the possibility of a follow-up in the form of a TV show was considered, Woodley made it very clear that she wasn’t interested.
But hey, could the reemergence of fan enthusiasm on streaming, almost a decade after the debut of the first film, help convince the studio and actors to hash out their differences and bring back “The Divergent Series?
No, probably not. At least you can still watch those first three movies on HBO Max, though.
