During the 2010s, there was a huge spike inYA dystopian booksgetting film and television adaptations, and among them was James Dashner’sMaze Runnerseries. Audiences could not get enough of the end-of-the-world genre, and more specifically, because of the young protagonists, teenagers felt as if they had finally been given a voice in a more “adult” setting.
In these works, a governing body or an elite organization is always trying to mask horrible situations with false promises to civilians who are not privy to what is going on behind the scenes. However, an ambitious teenager emerges and convinces a group that they have to stand up for what is right, even if that means risking one’s life.
When the thirdMaze Runnerfilm,The Death Cure, premiered in 2018, fans thought that was the end of the era — we mean, with the fullHunger Gamesfranchise, the incompleteDivergenttrilogy, the oneGivermovie, the MazeRunnertrilogy, and The CW’sThe 100, it is understandable that audiences were simply tired of seeing such similar patterns and storylines. However, in 2023, Suzanne Collins' prequel novel,The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, received a movie adaptation, and thus,YA dystopias got a second wind.
Maze Runner
Fans of the originalHunger Gamesfilms were excited to see how the tragic and deadly games came to be, and with a handful of new characters to follow, their storylines seemed to fall right into place and answer some questions fans had about the original plot.
With the prequel’s success, plenty of audiences are turning their attention to theMaze Runnerseries. Dashner has written two prequel novels, detailing the events leading up to the building of the maze and Thomas' involvement with WICKED (WCKD in the films), and in 2019, Disney even announced that a fourthMaze Runnerfilm was in the works. So, fans are simply asking, “what are we waiting for?” Perhaps the company needs a little nudge from the fans about why exactly theMaze Runnertrilogy deserves a prequel movie.
What We Know of Thomas' Involvement with WCKD
InThe Maze Runner, when Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) is in the Glade, he has flashbacks to when he was working for WCKD. Though he wishes they were just horrible nightmares, Thomas realizes that he was in fact a part of the malicious organization that put all the boys in the maze experiment. Thomas comes clean to his friends, and he even tells Teresa (KayaScodelario) that she was there with him, watching their friends get tortured and even die while they hoped a cure for the deadly disease would be found. Then, inMaze Runner: The Scorch Trials, audiences get even more insight as to what Thomas was doing with WCKD.
In the beginning of the second film, we get a small glimpse into Thomas' childhood when he was first brought to WCKD. In the opening scene, armed soldiers are standing at a gate where hundreds of people are pleading to get in. One woman, who is actually Thomas' biological mother, shoves her way through and gets Thomas to the guards. Because he is a part of the younger generation that is said to have more immune individuals, he is accepted.
Thomas then finds himself being transported with several other children to one of WCKD’s locations. Later on in the film, after Thomas has escaped the maze and WCKD’s facility, he meets a former WCKD scientist, and she reveals that before Thomas was sent into the maze, he was the one who sent coordinates and information out about all the WCKD locations and trials. Essentially, she explains that he is the one who made a successful resistance army even possible.
While all of this is fascinating to the audience as well as Thomas — because he does not remember much about his life before the Glade — it is a bit frustrating not to have a coherent timeline of what actually went on at the WCKD headquarters. Overall, there are too many plot holes and questions surrounding Thomas' involvement with the sinister organization that a prequel could help clarify.
Related:The Maze Runner: Dylan O’Brien’s Best Moments as Thomas
A Maze Runner Prequel Already Exists
Before James Dashner’sThe Maze Runnerwas adapted into a film, he had already published a prequel to his original trilogy entitledThe Kill Order. Dashner understood that audiences would have questions about how the maze came to be, what exactly went down on the first few days of the solar flares, and how a ruthless virus was established, so he decided to address everything in not one, but two prequels.
The first prequel,The Kill Order,is set 13 years before the events ofThe Maze Runner, and it follows two teenagers, Mark and Trina, as they figure out how to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where no one trusts one another. To put it lightly, the story starts off when the world is hit by fatal solar flares. Like everyone else who witnessed the mass destruction, Mark and Trina try to get to safety, but they learn that there is also a deadly virus called “the Flare” that is spreading and killing people. While on their journey, the pair meet a young girl named Deedee (who turns out to be Teresa fromthe original trilogy) who is truly immune to the virus. The fact that there could be more people like her gives Mark and Trina hope that the human race will survive.
The second prequel,The Fever Code, dips more into Thomas' past with WICKED. While at the facility, Thomas (who is only five years old at the time) meets Teresa, Newt, Minho, and Alby. The children all get along at first, but Teresa and Thomas notice they are treated differently by the staff. Thomas attends class, and as he gets older, he is given more responsibilities; in fact, Thomas is the one who ends up creating the maze project that is featured in the very first film.
As the story goes on, Newt, Minho, and Alby end up as test subjects in the maze, and Thomas and Teresa then watch as their friends and the other boys fight for their lives. Thomas eventually grows a conscience and believes that WICKED should end their suffering, since a cure has not been found. The story concludes with Teresa agreeing to go into the maze with her full memories and the words “WICKED is good” inscribed on her arm.
Related:Why Teen Dystopian Future Movies Died Out
The Problems with Turning the Prequel Books Into Movies
While fans would absolutely love for a prequel ofThe Maze Runnerto come out (or at least actively be in development) by the end of 2024,there are a few particularsthat do not make the situation so easy. First off, Dashner has two prequels that could be attacked and adapted into films. The first one,The Kill Order, primarily deals with entirely different characters. Aside from a brief prologue and epilogue depicting Thomas and Teresa, a whole new cast would have to make their way onto the set and show us just how the first few weeks of the solar flares and the virus completely disrupted our society.
Since this was essentially the case forThe Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes— featuring a whole new cast with subtle tie-ins to the original movies — fans may not be so upset. In fact, it would be beneficial to only include Dylan O’Brien and KayaScodelario as voice-overs for the prologue and epilogue, that is, if the writers chose to incorporate them at all.
The second potential prequel, an adaptation ofThe Fever Code, would be even tougher to manage, but it would answer a lot of fans' questions about Thomas and Teresa’s experience with WCKD. The main problem with making this film would be that the original actors would be needed for at least half of the movie, and since it has been a decade sinceThe Maze Runnerwas shot, they don’t exactly look like teenagers anymore. Technology could be used to age O’Brien, Scodelario, and the other Gladers down, but that may turn away audiences. Perhaps this conundrum is exactly why the film has been put off for so long.
