17 Sep '15

Dylan O’Brien on Leading ‘Maze Runner’: ‘I Never Want to Disappoint’

VARIETY.COM – Twentieth Century Fox premiered “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials,” the second installment of the successful “Maze Runner” young adult franchise, Tuesday night at the Times Square Regal Cinemas in New York amid fan pandemonium. Outside the theater, countless tweens waited in line to get up close and snap selfies with the film’s young cast.

Fans will be thrilled to find out that director Wes Ball is returning to the director’s chair to helm “The Death Cure,” the third and final story of the science fiction series written by James Dashner. Shooting is slated to begin in December.

The “Maze Runner” films marks Dylan O’Brien‘s first big screen role as a leading man. Although he’s been the lead on MTV’s “Teen Wolf” for the past five seasons, the 24-year-old actor admits being the first on the call sheet in a big budget Hollywood movie and seeing his name on top of billboards is a “surreal” experience.

“When I was 12, if someone told me that I would star in a film and make movies, I would have tripped out,” said O’Brien, who hopes to follow in the footstep of Matt Damon and Sam Rockwell’s careers. “Now that it’s really happening, I’m living my wildest dreams and it makes me want to work harder. I never want to disappoint and I don’t want to be the dud in anything I do. I want to continue to do great work.”

Patricia Clarkson signed on to play the pivotal role of Chancellor Ava Paige, the film’s manipulative adversary, after getting approval from two young friends.

“My neighbors, who are quite young, told me the book rocks after I told them I had been offered a role in the first movie and their reaction was unbelievable. I’ve never seen them so excited in all their lives,” she said. “After seeing how excited they were, I knew I had to take the role. They are both now 15 and I brought them here tonight to the premiere.”

Franchise newcomer Giancarlo Esposito appreciated the film’s unique message compared to the other YA stories such as “Divergent” and “Hunger Games,” which drew him to play Jorge, a leader of a group of survivors known as the Cranks.

“This film has so much depth to it. I feel like this film has key elements in what we have lost and have seized to think about on a daily basis,” said the “Breaking Bad” alum. “The film shows hope, courage, morality and what banding together with others is like and thinking about issues that are bigger than us.”

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