As far as YA book-to-movie adaptations go, Maze Runner is a success story. The movies starring Dylan O’Brien received adaptations for its core trilogy and managed to make some solid money along the way without greatly alienating its fans along the way. Crazy, right? It has a different narrative in Hollywood than other YA adaptations we’ve examined, such as the Divergent series, which came just short of its conclusion in 2016. Or the Percy Jackson movies, which was cancelled just two movies into production and is now set to be remade into a Disney+ TV show. But the Maze Runner movies did end with more books on the shelves from James Dashner. Why?
The best selling dystopian science fiction novels that began in 2009 follows a group of teenagers left in a mysterious place called the “Glade” surrounded by massive walls and a deadly maze as the only possible exit. Let’s talk about what went down with Maze Runner and why we have yet to hear about more films from James Dashner’s world: