If you’ve read Veronica Roth’s Insurgent and caught Robert Schwentke’s film, you know the screenwriters made some pretty drastic changes to the source material, some of which have to affect the adaptation of Allegiant. However, while talking to Theo James at the Tribeca Film Festival for the world premiere of his new film, Franny, he insisted that The Divergent Series: Allegiant - Part 1 will not include any major alterations to the source material.
“Not huge [changes], no. I think they were able to consolidate with the third movie and kind of consolidate all the key elements of the book. I think it’s gonna be pretty similar. I think the luxury of this one is that we have time to tell the book over two movies so I think, if anything, it’ll be the material in the book, but then added as well. There will be more stuff because we have more time to tell the story.”
One of the most significant changes from Roth’s book to Schwentke’s film is the introduction of the box, a device that can only be unlocked by someone who is 100% Divergent. Here’s what James said when asked if the box changes what it means to be Divergent in the upcoming films:
“No because the third film is kind of - it’s about genetic superiority, which before it was about - similarly there was a genetic element, but now it’s literally, it’s a hierarchy of people who seem to be genetically pure. So, in a way, in the third movie she’s flipped. She goes from the lowest of the rung to the highest of the rung.”
Well, that does sound about right, so perhaps the Allegiant screenwriters are keeping the Bureau’s agenda intact. However, that doesn’t mean other elements will stand. For example, Insurgent the movie essentially removes all conflict between Four and Tris. Could the same happen in the Allegiant films as well? And then of course there’s that ending. Is everyone leaving the city?
Additional details will likely surface throughout production and post, but we’ll have to wait until The Divergent Series: Allegiant - Part 1 hits theaters on March 18, 2016 to see if the film is drastically different like Insurgent.
