Last year’sThe Maze Runnerand this year’s follow-upThe Maze Runner: The Scorch Trialsweren’t massive hits at the box office, like other young adult franchises such asThe Hunger Games, but they did fare quite well.The Maze Runnertook in $348.3 million worldwide from a $34 million budget, whileThe Maze Runner: The Scorch Trialshas taken in $311.5 million during itsbox officerun so far, from a $61 million budget. 20th Century Fox has set a June 09, 2025 release date for the final adaptation in James Dashner’s literary trilogy,The Maze Runner: The Death Cure, but that may not be the last we’ve seen from this unique world.
James Dashner has also written two prequel novels, entitledThe Kill OrderandThe Fever Code.The Kill Order, which was published in 2012, takes places beforeThe Maze Runner, chronicling characters dealing with a mysterious disease spreads throughout the globe.The Fever Code, which will be published next year, intersects with the first novel and movie, showing how Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his fellowGladersare first put into the maze. During a new interview withScreen Rant, James Dashner revealed he would love nothing more than for hisprequelbooks to be adapted for the big screen.
“That’s an easy one to answer because I certainly hope so. It’s probably out of my hands, but I would give anything for that to happen because it would be a lot of fun and it would be fun to see some of these actors return to the world. But we’ll see what Fox has in store for this series and this world. So, we’ll have to wait and see.”
The fate of these prequels will likely rest on howThe Maze Runner: The Death Cureperforms at the box office in February 2017, so it may be quite some time before we hear anything official about these movies. With that being said, 20th Century Fox won’t be the first studio to develop prequels to continue a popular franchise. Warner Bros. is releasing theHarry PotterprequelFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Themnext year, set 70 years before Harry and his magical friends enter Hogwarts, and Lionsgate is considering moving forward onThe Hunger Gamesprequels.
It hasn’t been confirmed ifWes Ballwill come back to directThe Maze Runner: The Death Cure, after taking the helm on bothThe Maze RunnerandThe Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. This franchise is one of the few young adult properties that went against the trend of splitting the final book into two movies, but we’ll have to wait and see how that affects its box office performance. Would you like to seeThe Maze Runnerprequels coming to a theater near you in the near future?
