‘Divergent’ Author Veronica Roth on Her One Regret About ‘Allegiant’s Ending (VIDEO)
What To Know
- Veronica Roth reflected on the lasting impact of the Divergent series during an interview with Swooon.
- Roth revealed the one aspect of the series’s shocking ending that she regrets.
- To mark the series’ fifteenth anniversary, Roth is releasing The Sixth Faction in October 2026.
On April 26, 2011, Veronica Roth introduced readers to Beatrice “Tris” Prior, a 16-year-old living in a factioned society, who receives an inconclusive result on the aptitude test, which is supposed to help her choose which community she belongs to. Being selfless (Abnegation), brave (Dauntless), and knowledge-seeking (Erudite), Tris is secretly deemed the most dangerous label of all, Divergent.
Fifteen years later, Roth sat down with Swooon to celebrate the anniversary of her Divergent book series, which later became a film series starring Shailene Woodley as Tris, Theo James as Four, and Zoe Kravitz as Christina, and discussed the lasting legacy of her dystopian trilogy, the shocking ending, and what she wishes she might have changed looking back.
“When you write a book, you don’t expect it to have that kind of lingering impact,” Roth confessed. “I’m impressed that the series had the success it had, but what is really gratifying is that readers continue to pick it up, even 15 years later.” According to the author, who has since come out with multiple new stories, including The Curse Bearer series and her upcoming release, Seek The Traitor’s Son.
After all these years, Roth revealed, “I still get direct messages from a 14-year-old who’s in the middle of Allegiant, who wants to tell me how much she’s enjoying it.” Knowing how Allegiant, and in turn, the entire Divergent trilogy ends, Roth joked, “I’m like, ‘Godspeed.'”
Of course, we had to ask Roth about the ending of Allegiant, which has gone down in literary history as one of the most shocking endings of all time. For anyone who hasn’t read the ending of the Divergent series, we’re about to hit you with a massive spoiler because we can’t look back at Divergent without discussing Tris’ death at the end of the series.
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According to Roth, she knew that her main character would die at the end of the series from the moment she started the first book. What surprised her was that readers didn’t see it coming. She explained, “The thing I didn’t know was that people would be surprised by it. And I know that sounds insane, 15 years later, but I thought, you know, surely, I’ve done such a good job of setting all of this up and repeating the same structure at the end of every book that people will see this coming.”
A decade and a half later, Roth confessed she completely understands why readers had such a strong reaction to Tris’ death at the end of her series. That said, she explained, “I think I learned so much about the way that it happened, the good and the bad. Obviously, any author looking back at their old work can see a thousand different ways to rewrite it, so yes, that’s true of me, of course.”
When it comes to the one thing Roth may regret looking back, it’s how she ended the story romantically. Fans may recall that Roth revealed in the epilogue of the series that after Tris died, her main love interest, Four, and best friend, Christina, ended up together.
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“I think, maybe, the most controversial decision I made was to have Four and Christina end up together. Maybe I regret that a little,” she laughed. When asked where the duo would be 15 years later, Roth told Swooon, “What I liked about them was that they made each other laugh, and to me, that’s the foundation to any good long relationship. So I like to think they’d still be together, making each other laugh.”
At the end of our interview, which took place in October 2025, Roth teased, “I’ve got plenty coming up.” Now, we know that Roth is celebrating the 15th anniversary of Divergent by releasing an alternative universe version of Tris’ story titled The Sixth Faction, in which she is set on a different path when tragedy strikes at her Choosing Ceremony. Our only question is, on this new path, does Tris still die?
Be sure to watch Swooon‘s full interview with Veronica Roth above!
The Sixth Faction by Veronica Roth hits shelves on October 6, 2026.
