Yet another strike against Summit’s high-grossing Divergent franchise – even though producers cast Rosa Salazar in the role of Dauntless-born initiate Lynn for Insurgent (the character was written out of Divergent despite being a fan favorite), they’ve opted against developing her character in either Allegiant film, meaning that the character will never get anywhere near the arc she did in Veronica Roth’s book trilogy.
At Comic-Con, Collider’s Perri Nemiroff caught up with Salazar and asked her about Lynn’s role in Allegiant, given that she survived the events of Insurgent. Salazar’s simple response:
“I’m not going to be in Allegiant at all.”
That’s got to come as a surprise to fans of the series, given that Lynn was a fan favorite character who seemingly had more to do in the franchise. Lynn’s survival on screen was a change from Roth’s book, in which the character went out in a blaze of glory, and many had considered her survival in Insurgent an indicator that the character would play a larger role in Allegiant. That’s seemingly not the case – instead, it appears that the studio just wanted fans to get excited at Lynn’s inclusion without ever planning to give her an actual story arc.
The book version of Lynn was close friends with other Dauntless recruits Marlene (Suki Waterhouse) and Uriah (Keiynan Lonsdale) as well as the older sister of Hector (Emjay Anthony). Though she was not friends with Tris (Shailene Woodley) at first, Lynn warmed up to her in Insurgent, and there was a pivotal scene in which Tris had to pick saving Hector or Marlene during one of Jeanine Matthews’ (Kate Winslet) simulation attacks on Dauntless. She chose Hector, earning Lynn’s gratitude even amid her heartbreak. After she was fatally shot in the stomach at the end of Roth’s Insurgent, Lynn tearfully revealed that she was in love with Marlene and regretted not telling her before Marlene’s death.
Of course, any book-to-film adaptation is going to leave stuff out, but it’s particularly surprising to see Lynn sidelined as she has been, despite Marlene’s death remaining in the finished cut of Insurgent. It’s doing a big disservice to the fans not to do right by a beloved book character but still throw them haphazardly into the mix. As frustrating as it will be for fans, I’m willing to bet no one’s going to even comment on Lynn in Allegiant, entirely negating her part in the books.