50 Fun Facts About Divergent

Who wrote the Divergent trilogy?

Roth wrote the first book over winter break in her senior year at Northwestern and sold the film rights before it was even printed. The trilogy has sold more than 35 million copies.

In which post-apocalyptic city is Divergent set?

Roth said she did not plan the setting; she looked at her draft's constant trains, lake marsh and rivers and realised she had written the city she knew best.

How many factions divide society in Divergent?

Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless and Erudite, plus the outcast Factionless who failed initiation or left.

Which faction is reserved for the honest?

Candor members are raised to tell the truth bluntly, and their headquarters is where the Dauntless regroup and submit to truth serum in Insurgent.

Beatrice's aptitude test shows equal aptitude for how many factions, marking her as Divergent?

Her results point to Abnegation, Dauntless and Erudite. The tester Tori records only one and warns her never to reveal the truth.

Which faction does Beatrice's brother Caleb choose, shocking his family?

He goes on to betray Tris in later books, working for the very faction leader who orders the attack on their parents.

What name does Beatrice give herself after jumping into the net at Dauntless headquarters?

She is the first initiate to leap from the roof into the dark hole. Her instructor Four is the one who asks her name.

What does Tris's instructor's numeric nickname refer to?

Tris discovers it when he shows her his fear landscape. In his final fear she also learns his real name and the truth about his abusive father.

What is Four's real first name?

He is the son of Marcus Eaton, the Abnegation leader accused of abusing him. The rumors turn out to be true.

Which faction leader masterminds the simulation attack on Abnegation?

She injects Four with an experimental serum that overrides his Divergence and makes him see friends as enemies, then sends him to run the attack from the control room.

How are the Dauntless soldiers controlled during the attack on Abnegation?

Tris wakes to find her friends moving in unison in a sleepwalking state. Being Divergent, she and Four are unaffected.

Which friend is Tris forced to kill in self-defense during the attack?

He is under the simulation and does not know her. Christina, his girlfriend, learns the truth in Insurgent under truth serum.

Which fellow initiate is suspected of stabbing the top-ranked Edward in the eye?

Edward leaves to become Factionless with his girlfriend Myra, and the culprit takes his place at the top of the rankings.

How does Tris rank at the end of Dauntless initiation?

She had finished sixth after the physical first stage; her Divergent ability to manipulate the fear simulations carried her to the top.

What is the fate of the initiates who fail Dauntless initiation?

Four tells the transfers only the top ten will stay. The Factionless live as outcasts doing menial work, and become a political force in Insurgent.

Which publisher released Divergent in 2011?

It came out through HarperCollins Children's Books, a little over a year after Roth graduated. The sequels followed in 2012 and 2013.

At which school was the author studying creative writing when she wrote Divergent?

She spent a year at Carleton College before transferring. Publishing rights sold before she graduated in 2010.

Roth originally started writing the series from whose point of view before switching to Beatrice?

She later returned to that voice for Four: A Divergent Collection, a set of five prequel-style short stories.

How many short stories make up Four: A Divergent Collection?

They are The Transfer, The Initiate, The Son, The Traitor and Free Four, which retells the knife-throwing scene. The collected edition arrived in July 2014.

In Insurgent, Tris and Four first take refuge with which faction?

There Tris overhears Marcus and Amity leader Johanna Reyes discussing the secret the Abnegation leaders died to protect.

Who is Evelyn Johnson-Eaton?

Presumed dead, she wants her son to bring Dauntless into an alliance against Erudite. In Allegiant she becomes the city's leader.

What is the society's motto about lifetime allegiance?

Factions are meant to be a lifetime allegiance that outranks family, which is why Tris and Caleb's departures devastate their parents.

Allegiant is narrated from the alternating perspectives of Tris and which other character?

It was the first book in the trilogy to leave Tris's sole viewpoint, a choice that became crucial for the way the story ends.

What organization do Tris and her friends discover beyond the city's fence in Allegiant?

Its leader David reveals the city was an experiment after genetic tampering sparked the Purity Wars. Tris learns the Bureau supplied Erudite with the simulation serums.

In Allegiant, Tris takes over what suicide mission from her brother Caleb?

She survives the death serum in the lab but is shot by David. The ending drew a strong reaction from many readers.

Who plays Tris in the Divergent films?

Her casting was announced in October 2012. The same year the first film came out she starred in The Fault in Our Stars opposite her Divergent co-star Ansel Elgort.

Which British actor plays Four?

He was cast in March 2013 and it became his breakthrough role; he later led The Gentlemen and The White Lotus's second season.

Which Oscar winner plays the villain behind the attack on Abnegation in the films?

She was announced to be in talks in January 2013 and was pregnant during filming, which the crew hid with props and framing.

Who directed the first Divergent film?

Burger, known for Limitless, was announced in August 2012. He stayed on as executive producer when Schwentke took over the sequels.

Which future Whiplash star plays Peter in the films?

He was cast on the same day Theo James was announced as Four. Ansel Elgort plays Caleb and Jai Courtney plays Eric.

Which actress plays Christina in the film series?

Maggie Q plays Tori, the tattoo artist who administers Tris's aptitude test, and Ansel Elgort was cast as Caleb the same day.

Which two actors play Tris's parents, Natalie and Andrew Prior?

Both were added in April 2013. Judd's Natalie is revealed to be a Dauntless transfer and Divergent herself.

Which singer provides vocals on four tracks of the Divergent score as Tris's 'inner voice'?

Junkie XL composed the score with Hans Zimmer as executive producer. Goulding's 'Beating Heart' also appeared on the soundtrack.

Divergent's budget rose from $40 million to $85 million because of which franchise's success?

Lionsgate, which owns Summit, had just watched Katniss become a phenomenon. Divergent went on to gross about $289 million worldwide.

Which city landmark was dressed with dirt and rust for the film's zip-line sequence?

Most of the first film shot on location in the city; the sequels moved production to Atlanta.

Who directed Insurgent and Allegiant, taking over from the first film's director?

He was offered the job in February 2014, with Akiva Goldsman brought in to rewrite the Insurgent script.

Which Oscar winner joined Insurgent as Amity representative Johanna Reyes?

Naomi Watts joined the same film as Evelyn and Daniel Dae Kim as Candor leader Jack Kang.

Which actor plays David, the Bureau leader, in the Allegiant film?

Daniels and Skarsgård were the two newcomers to the cast in 2015. The film opened second at the box office behind Zootopia.

What was the planned title of the fourth Divergent film, which was never made?

After Allegiant underperformed, Lionsgate tried to reconfigure it as a Starz TV movie leading into a spin-off series, and the project eventually died.

Which studio bought the film rights to Divergent in March 2011, before the book was even printed?

Summit, then fresh off Twilight, teamed with Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher's Red Wagon Entertainment. Its parent Lionsgate later raised the budget on the strength of The Hunger Games.

Which of these Goodreads Choice Awards did Insurgent win in 2012?

Roth was also named Goodreads' Author of 2012. Divergent had won Favorite Book of 2011.

Roth's next series after Divergent, beginning with Carve the Mark, was published in which year?

Its sequel The Fates Divide followed in 2018, and her first adult novel Chosen Ones came out in 2020.

Which faction is reserved for the peaceful?

The other factions are for the selfless, the honest, the brave and the knowledge-seekers.

Which faction holds most of the government positions in the city?

Its selflessness earns it the role, which is why Erudite stirs up dissent by accusing it of hoarding supplies.

Which of Tris's fellow initiates dies by suicide after joining an attack on her?

He begged her forgiveness after helping Peter, Molly and Drew try to throw her to her death, and she rejected him.

Which faction does Tris deduce her mother Natalie originally transferred from?

On Visiting Day Natalie knows too much about Dauntless initiation, and tells Tris to stay strong but not draw attention.

How many weeks did Divergent last on the New York Times Young Adult best-seller list, to November 2013?

It had debuted at number six on the Children's Chapter Books list in May 2011; the trilogy sold over 6.7 million copies in 2013 alone.

In Insurgent, under truth serum at Candor headquarters, what does Tris confess?

Tobias, meanwhile, admits his reasons for transferring to Dauntless; the other Dauntless have taken refuge with Candor.

Who narrates the secret video revealed at the end of Insurgent, explaining why the city was sealed?

She speaks for 'an organization fighting for peace' and says the city was closed off to allow the Divergent to multiply.

In Allegiant, which long-presumed-dead mentor of Tobias meets the group outside the fence?

He takes them to the organisation whose leader, David, explains the 'Purity War' and the split between genetically pure and damaged.