Underestimated by many including us, and kept going by firm fanbase, "The Maze Runner" is a YA franchise survivor in a sea of also rans. And it’s a feat made more remarkable given there are really no big names in the cast — certainly none on the level of Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson, Julianne Moore, and Philip Seymour Hoffman (to name a few) in "The Hunger Games" series or Shailene Woodley, Miles Teller, Kate Winslet, Octavia Spencer and more in the "Divergent" flicks. But yet, "The Maze Runner" pulled in a healthy $340 million worldwide last fall on a budget of $34 million. It’s easy math, the numbers are good, and so comes "The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials."
“The first movie was the mystery of ‘Where are we and what is this place? And can we get out?’ But the second movie is about the repercussions of getting out and the discovery of what the world is actually like,” producer Wyck Godfrey told EW. And indeed, it does look like the world is opening up a bit more in the followup.
Wes Ball is back to direct, with Dylan O’Brien and Kaya Scodelario returning as well from the first film and many more. ‘The Scorch Trials’ heats up on September 18th.