No, that story in July about the Divergent finale skipping theaters wasn’t a late April Fools Day joke. Lionsgate has confirmed that the Divergent / Ascendant TV movie and/or spinoff TV series is really happening.

Speaking on an earnings call Thursday, Lionsgate TV and Film heads revealed that the plan is for the TV movie to “lead into a first season of 10 to 13 episodes, possibly followed by multiple seasons,” according to Variety.

But in the words of Lionsgate TV Group Chair Kevin Beggs during the earnings call, it sounds like Allegiant, Part 2 a.k.a. Ascendant will actually play out across those 10 – 13 episodes. Check out what Beggs said (emphasis ours):

“We got excited about the possibility of what the series could look like — resolving the novel in a season across 10 to 13 episodes and then expanding from there into multiple seasons. This is an example of what we call the virtuous cycle of content bouncing back and forth from TV and film. The economic upside on a long term series franchise is very substantial.”

Beggs says they’re doing this because “there’s a tremendous fandom,” but “the performance of the last segment of the theatrical [a.k.a Allegiant] didn’t really create a situation where we could commit the production resources necessary to really make the production we needed.”

I can’t see how the second half of the Allegiant book will be able to be stretched out into 10 – 13 episodes. I suppose they’ll add in a bunch of new plot lines that can lead into additional season for the TV show. Allegiant — the movie — already diverted so much from the source material, so why not double down by diverting even further from Veronica Roth’s plot?

Making matters worse, the film’s stars may not even return for the movie.

In the words of Roth on Twitter yesterday: