This “Divergent” star might not be in the final movie, YIKES

The convoluted saga of the Divergent franchise continues…

I don’t think anyone ever expected the news that Lionsgate announced a few weeks ago – that the fourth and final movie, Ascendant, would be released as a TV movie instead of in theaters on June 9, 2017, as originally planned, allegedly because the studio was disappointed in how much money the last movie, Allegiant made ($29 million, while Divergent amassed $54 million and Insurgent got $52 million),

That was a hugely shocking move, to say the least. Even the franchise stars were taken off-guard by it. Studios just kind of… don’t ever do that. Or rarely, if ever. It’s just not a thing.

The decision made a bit more sense when we found of the good news part of this good news-bad news announcement: that the studio was planning on potentially spinning off the franchise into a TV show, post-fourth movie. Now that is something we could totally get on board with. The Divergent world created by author Veronica Roth is so interesting and unique, and there’s definitely a lot more that we could explore in an ongoing TV show with new characters.

While a TV movie and subsequent show could be amazing, the fact that the stars from the original three movies might opt not to make the jump to TV is disheartening. Of course, the spin-off series would most likely not have any of the same characters or stars (it’s a spin-off, after all), but I was hoping that everyone would return for the TV movie’s last hurrah.

Now, one star is speaking out about the possibility of leaving the franchise and sitting out the final TV movie.

Newly-blonde Miles Teller spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the franchise’s future at the premiere of his new movie War Dogs and hinted that he might not sign on for the last movie.

What?! This is terrible news. Teller, who plays Tris’ sometimes-foe Peter Hayes in the films, is one of the best actors in the franchise. I can’t imagine anyone else playing Peter in the last movie.

Of course, legally, Teller (and all of the other stars) are well within their rights to sit this one out – sources told THR that the cast’s option agreements for subsequent sequels had “a theatrical requirement.” Meaning that the studio needs to renegotiate all new contracts for a TV movie and that certain actors might choose not to sign on. Teller, specifically, said “we’ll see” when asked about the chances of a return for the final movie.

“At this point, it’s a different set of circumstances,” he said. “We’ll see. I honestly haven’t talked to anybody.”

That’s fair. Teller and the other cast members are huge movie stars. The new schedule for the final film simply might not work for them, with their other existing movie obligations.

Despite the chance that he might not continue the role of Peter, Teller had nothing but good things to say about working on the franchise. He even said that “you won’t find a single actor who worked in that franchise who would have anything bad to say about that experience” and that he’s “got nothing but love for everybody [he] worked with” on the films. Awww – that’s great to hear, at least!

Fingers crossed that Teller, Woodley, Theo James, and the rest of the cast will be able to work it out and finish off the franchise as they’d planned to – just on a smaller screen.