‘Divergent’ Author Veronica Roth Announces 2 New Books in Series Based in Alternate Timeline: Details

Veronica Roth is expanding her Divergent universe.

Roth, 37, announced during BookCon on Saturday, April 18, that two new installments in the dystopian series are on their way. The stories will be set in a companion timeline to Divergent and will serve as a duology that asks the question, “What if Tris hadn’t transferred to Dauntless?”

The first novel, titled The Sixth Faction, will hit shelves on October 6.

“The Sixth Faction started as an experiment — not a sequel, not a prequel, and not a spinoff, but something new, something that would allow me to explore the series that launched my career,” Roth shared in a Saturday press release. “I feel very fortunate that the team at Harper was eager to meet that challenge with me — and I’m excited that, in the year of Divergent’s 15-year anniversary, readers and I both get to rediscover the story and the characters like they’re brand new.”

Readers will be reintroduced to Divergent protagonist Beatrice Prior in The Sixth Faction, rewinding the story to the beginning, where she must decide to choose her faction after being labeled as a Divergent — someone who holds traits of multiple factions.

While Tris famously chooses Dauntless in the original story, this time, tragedy will strike at her Choosing Ceremony and everything will change — “her world, her plans, even Beatrice herself,” the logline reads. “Her ensuing decision thrusts her into the crosshairs of an underground rebellion, and into the path of a boy with secrets as dangerous as her own — a boy with only a number for a name.”

Vice President and publisher at HarperCollins Children’s Books Erica Sussman shared her support for the series in a statement on Saturday, sharing, “The Sixth Faction is a tour de force. We were thrilled to explore this new take on the Divergent world with Veronica, who has taken her storytelling talents to new heights that will thrill longtime fans of the series and delight readers new to the world.”

The Divergent series was previously adapted for the big screen. The trilogy — Divergent (2014), Insurgent (2015) and Allegiant (2016) — starred Shailene Woodley as Tris and Theo James as her love interest, Four. A fourth film, titled Ascendant, was meant to conclude the series but was abandoned after the third film’s low box office sales.

There has been no news on whether the new duology will be adapted.

The Sixth Faction will be available on October 6.