It’s now been five years since Disney bought 20th Century Fox, and we’re finally seeing that really pay off on the movie side. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is hitting theaters next week, Alien: Romulus and Deadpool & Wolverine are later this summer. What Fox movies are due next for a comeback? The Maze Runner series, naturally.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, 20th Century Studios is looking to reboot the YA sci-fi movies for a new generation. Heading up those efforts is writer Jack Paglen, best known for 2014’s si-fi thriller Transcendence starring Johnny Depp. Sources speaking to THR claim the reboot will look to continue the original story while also returning to the roots of that original film.
In case you’ve forgotten, the original Maze Runner—directed by Wes Ball, who’s helming Kingdom (and eventually Legend of Zelda), and will produce this new flick—released in 2014 and was based on the dystopian YA books written by James Dashner. Dylan O’Brien starred as an amnesiac kid named Thomas who woke up in up in a big grass area home to other boys that’s also surrounded by a massive maze. Deeply curious and unable to shake that something was going on, Thomas worked to uncover the maze’s secrets and find a way for him and the other Gladers to escape.
The Maze Runner franchise was one of many trying to chase after Hunger Games and Twilight money, and ended up succeeding. Its first movie made $348.3 million (against a $34 million budget), and its two sequels—2015’s Scorch Trials and 2018’s Death Cure—were equally big at $312.3 million and $288.2 million, respectively. (The latter film was infamously delayed after O’Brien was hospitalized for serious injuries and had to recover).
Not long after the merger completed, Disney confirmed it’d eventually spin up new Maze Runner movies. Instead of pulling a Hunger Games and doing a movie or two based on the previously released prequel books The Kill Order and Fever Code, it looks like Disney’s decided to start anew. Rebooting not-that-old YA fare appears to be the move nowadays, if Twilight and (arguably) Percy Jackson are any indication. The original Maze movies were pretty fun, solid films, so here’s hoping the same is true of this reboot whenever it runs into theaters.
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