Director Robert Schwentke, who directed the second and third installments of the Divergent series (last year’s Insurgent, and the upcoming Allegiant, opening March 18th) has decided against directing Ascendant, the final feature in the series. The news was first reported by Deadline. The first movie in the series from Lionsgate was helmed by Neil Burger.
The Hollywood Reporter cited a source saying that there is no love lost between Schwentke and the studio as he simply needed a break after doing the last two Divergent films back to back, and wanted to spend more time with his family in Los Angeles.
The Veronica Roth novel series stars Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars), Theo James (The Benefactor), Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars), Miles Teller (Whiplash) and twice-Oscar nominated actress Naomi Watts (While We’re Young).
The Divergent Series: Ascendant will start filming in Atlanta this summer and has a current release date of June 9, 2017. Lionsgate will now be hard at work looking to fill the director’s chair. We will have more on these developments as news is released.