Shailene Woodley Toughens Up in New Batch of ‘Divergent’ Stills

By  · Published on June 25th, 2013

As Hollywood’s love affair with popular YA properties grinds relentlessly on, we’re doomed to be inundated with a whole mess of stories asking if the newest something or other is “the next Twilight” or “the newest Hunger Games” (hey, sometimes we wonder about it too), but easy associations aside, there really are some great teen-focused adaptations hitting the big screen soon. We promise. Fine, maybe we’re just talking about the cinematic version of Veronica Roth’s three-book “Divergent” series, which will kick off next year with the release of the currently-filming Divergent, but Roth’s future-set and vividly imagined series is one of the best we’ve read recently, and we’re pretty highly anticipating it. Even better? The film stars Shailene Woodley in a role that has “starmaker” written all over it (if this summer’s The Spectacular Now doesn’t already accomplish that for her).

Woodley stars as Tris Prior, resident of a future Chicago where all residents (and its a slim bunch, thanks to some sort of event that seemingly wiped out most of the world) have been divided into very different factions. Despite growing up in the Abnegation faction, Tris discovers that she’s (dun-dun-DUH!!!) “divergent,” someone who doesn’t neatly fit into just one faction. With an annual event that lets teenagers pick a new faction coming up, Tris is faced with a big choice. Oh, and discovering that being divergent is dangerous isn’t helping things.

The film is filming in Chicago now, so we’ve been treated to a few looks at the production already, but today brings a new batch of stills that feature Woodley looking tough, the rest of the cast looking even more tough (okay, fine, Tris joins up with the tough faction), and everything else looking quite appropriately Divergent-esque. As fans of the books, we’re pleased. After the break, check out the rest of the new stills from Divergent.

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Divergent opens on March 21, 2014. [Press Release]