Veronica Roth has reopened the world of Divergent more than a decade after stepping away from the bestselling trilogy — but she is not continuing the original story. Her new novel, The Sixth Faction, sends Beatrice “Tris” Prior down a different path in an alternate-universe retelling.
Released Oct. 6, the book is the first half of a planned duology set in the same post-apocalyptic society as Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant, where people are sorted into factions according to personality type. Roth began the project for herself, hoping that creating something new would help her work through the anxiety she had come to associate with the series.
“Divergent has this staying power that I wasn’t expecting,” Roth told The Hollywood Reporter. “I’d carried some anxiety baggage about Divergent, and I thought making something new would help me rediscover my love for the characters and the world.”
A different choice for Tris
In The Sixth Faction, tragedy strikes during Tris’ choosing ceremony. Her subsequent decision puts her in the sights of an underground rebellion, where she may have to place her trust in a boy whose name is only a number.
That boy is Four, despite early concern among fans that Tris’ original love interest might be absent. Roth dismissed that possibility with a simple observation: “He’s literally on the cover.”
Their relationship has nevertheless been reworked. In the original books, Four became Tris’ instructor after she joined the Dauntless faction. Roth now describes that student-teacher romance as “a little problematic,” noting that 15 years have passed. The new version places them on equal footing.
“He’s not teaching her anything, and she has things to teach him, too,” she explained. “Finding the romance and the spark without that altered power dynamic was really my focus.”
Roth also found the story developing into a conspiracy thriller. An unplanned theme emerged around the adults in Tris’ life repeatedly failing her, forcing the character to come of age without a clear route forward. While the original trilogy used a chosen-one framework, Roth said the new novel puts greater emphasis on collective action.
Before writing, the author revisited the trilogy more than once and listened to its audiobook editions. Hearing the material helped make the familiar text feel new, while the distance of time altered her assessment of her earlier work. Although she remains highly critical of the books, Roth said she was pleasantly surprised by the strength of the characters.
The unfinished movie story
Roth’s return also brings fresh attention to the film series released between 2014 and 2016. Shailene Woodley played Tris opposite Theo James as Four, with Kate Winslet, Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, Zoë Kravitz, Ashley Judd and Tony Goldwyn also appearing.
Divergent arrived in 2014, followed by Insurgent in 2015 and Allegiant in 2016. Because Allegiant adapted only part of the third novel, a fourth film titled Ascendant was intended to complete the story. It did not move forward after Allegiant disappointed at the box office.
Lionsgate later considered turning Ascendant into a Starz television movie that could lead into a spinoff series. That version was also abandoned after cast members, including Woodley and James, declined to return in a television format.
“I think at that point all of the actors had kind of moved forward,” Roth said. “Everyone had moved forward, and we weren’t going to move back.” She remains grateful for the career opportunity created by the films, despite their incomplete ending.
The abandoned final installment also left one major question unresolved: whether the screen adaptation would have preserved Tris’ death from the 2013 book. Roth said it is “hard to say” whether filmmakers ultimately would have retained that divisive ending, although she believes they were attempting to find a way to make it work.
Roth still stands by her decision, but age has complicated her view of it. She now recognizes more fully how young Tris was and calls the ending more tragic than she understood while writing it at 23 or 24. Even so, she views the novel as a record of the best work she could produce at that point and believes helping young readers confront grief is one of literature’s roles.
ShowBiz Take
The Sixth Faction matters because Roth is not simply filling in a missing chapter. She is reassessing the power dynamics, themes and character choices of the work that shaped her career, while leaving the original trilogy intact as a product of its time. The alternate-universe format gives her room to reconsider Tris and Four without erasing either the books’ controversial conclusion or the films’ unresolved one.
What Happens Next?
Roth has already completed the second book in the duology, The Last Testimony, which is due in February. She has been unveiling its cover during her book tour. Once that novel is released, she expects the Divergent series to feel “nice and closed for now,” while cautioning against saying never.
The author released the adult dystopian fantasy Seek the Traitor’s Son in May and has a sequel coming next year. As for a screen version of The Sixth Faction, Roth has sent the book to the relevant people but is keeping her attention on publishing. An adaptation would be welcome, she said, but books remain her preferred medium.