The 'Divergent' franchise is scrapping its final movie and going straight to TV

"The Divergent Series: Ascendant" was slated to come out next year and be the final movie in the adaptation of the popular young-adult novel series about a futuristic world broken into factions. But in an unprecedented movie the studio behind the movies, Lionsgate, has decided to cancel the theatrical release of "Ascendant" and move the franchise over to TV.

According to Variety, Lionsgate is in the early stages of negotiations to make "Ascendant" a TV movie and also create a spinoff series for the small screen.

The franchise, led by actress Shailene Woodley as its star, came out of the gates hot when the first movie, 2014's "Divergent," earned over $288 million worldwide on an $85 million budget. A year later, "The Divergent Series: Insurgent" did even better with $297.2 million worldwide.

But with the YA craze sputtering out around the same time the end of the popular "Hunger Games" franchise concluded late last year, the third "Divergent" movie, "Allegiant," crashed with $179.2 million worldwide, with the film only earning $66.1 million domestically.

It seems Lionsgate hopes to save face and get as much as they can out of their investment of the franchise by turning to TV. However, according to Variety, there's no word yet that Woodley or any of the other cast members from the movies will return for the "Ascendant" TV movie.

NOW WATCH: We took a ride around NYC in the new 'Ghostbusters' car which is actually a 1984 Cadillac hearse

Please enable Javascript to watch this video