Divergent Author Re-Writing The Sci-Fi Book Series With New Novel The Sixth Faction

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Veronica Roth is releasing two new books set in the world of Divergent but with a surprising twist.

Veronica Roth wrote the Divergent trilogy between 2011 and 2013, and a movie series based on the books began shortly after. Though she’s published some short stories set in that same futuristic world, she hasn’t released a new Divergent novel in over 13 years.

Okay, so Veronica Roth is finally giving us a new story in the Divergent universe! It’s called The Sixth Faction, and it’s the first book in a two-part series. Basically, it’s a ‘what if?’ scenario. Instead of choosing Dauntless like Tris does in the original Divergent, this story kicks off after something awful happens, and she ends up making a totally different choice. I’m really curious to see how that changes everything!

The first book in the series will be available on October 6, 2026, and the second book will follow in February 2027.

I was so excited to see Veronica Roth share the big news on Instagram – the cover art for the book is finally here! It features Tris perched on a rooftop, and you can see Four right behind her. It really captures the feeling of the story, and I can’t wait to read it!

The Divergent book series takes place in a futuristic Chicago where young people take a test to find out what they’re good at, and then choose to join one of five groups – Abnegation, Dauntless, Erudite, Amity, or Candor – which shapes the rest of their lives.

Tris Prior is different – labeled ‘Divergent’ – and this makes her a threat to the strict, controlling society she lives in. Raised in the selfless Abnegation faction, she chooses a new path on Choosing Day and begins a relationship with a young man named Four.

The movies Insurgent and Allegiant follow Tris and Four as they face conflict with Jeanine Matthews, a villain determined to gain power and eliminate anyone who opposes her.

As a huge fan, I was so excited when Divergent finally hit the big screen a year after the last book was published! The movie did really well, bringing in $289 million worldwide. While critics weren’t completely blown away – it got a 41% score on Rotten Tomatoes – it was still amazing to see the story come to life.

Despite negative reviews, the first movie made enough money to justify two sequels. The Divergent Series: Insurgent earned $297 million, though it only received a 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film series faced challenges when the studio opted to divide the last book into two movies – a common practice at the time, following the example of Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games, though with mixed results. These split installments were filmed back-to-back, a different approach than planned for Allegiant, which would have required two distinct filming periods.

Following the disappointing box office performance of The Divergent Series: Allegiant – it earned only $179 million and received a low 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes – Summit Entertainment initially planned to finish the story as a TV movie. However, those plans were also cancelled, ultimately leaving the Divergent film series unfinished.

The writers of popular book series like Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games have all returned to those stories with new books after finishing the original series.

As a long-time fan of immersive worlds, I’ve been following the expansions of some of my favorite franchises. It’s fascinating to see J.K. Rowling continuing to build out the wizarding world, not just with the Fantastic Beasts films, which she penned herself, but also her involvement in the stage play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. And over in the dystopian world of Panem, Suzanne Collins hasn’t stopped crafting stories; she’s recently given us two prequels to The Hunger Games – The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and the more recent Sunrise on the Reaping – both of which I found really added depth to the original narrative.

While some authors build on their existing stories, Stephenie Meyer, author of Twilight, has explored alternate versions. She wrote Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, which flips the genders of the main characters, and Midnight Sun, which retells the original Twilight story from Edward Cullen’s perspective instead of Bella’s.

Veronica Roth, the author of Divergent, is revisiting her story in a new way. Instead of simply retelling it with different genders or a new narrator, she’s rewriting the story from Tris’s perspective, imagining what would happen if Tris had chosen a different faction. Whether The Sixth Faction will become a movie or TV series is currently unknown, as the original Divergent film series didn’t continue.

The Sixth Faction will be released on Tuesday, October 6, 2026.

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2026-04-20 18:39