Back in November, we mentioned that Divergent was rounding up the likes of Jack Reynor (What Richard Did) and Brenton Thwaites (Blue Lagoon: The Awakening) to star opposite Shailene Woodley in the Neil Burger adaptation.  Reynor just landed a lead in Transformers 4, so he's likely off the table, but newcomers Lucas Till (X-Men: First Class), Alex Pettyfer (Magic Mike) and Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) are now vying for the coveted role.  Lionsgate is hoping that the property will be the next Twilight and/or The Hunger Games, which is a reasonable goal seeing as the Divergent novels lift themes from both series.  Hit the jump for more.

Variety reports

that Till, Pettyfer and Irvine are all in the running for Divergent.  Till previously showed off his action skills in X-Men: First Class as part of the mutant ensemble.  Pettyfer had his shot at leading a teen action franchise with I Am Number Four, which never caught fire.  Irvine, who turned in a fine dramatic performance opposite an upstaging horse in War Horse, has yet to wow audiences as an action-oriented heartthrob, as far as my knowledge of that sort of thing goes.  Divergent fans, who's your pick to play the romantic interest?

Here's the synopsis from the Veronica Roth novel, Divergent (via Amazon):

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.