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.”

Dylan is TVLine’s Performer of the Week!

THE PERFORMER | Dylan O’Brien
THE SHOW | Teen Wolf
THE EPISODE | “A Novel Approach” (July 20)
THE PERFORMANCE | In the world of MTV’s Teen Wolf, an “anchor” is something the werewolves focus on — it can be a person, a feeling, or even a memory — in order to retain their humanity. After Monday’s episode, it finally hit us that Teen Wolf has an anchor of its own: Dylan O’Brien’s Stiles.

Besides the fact that Stiles is literally the only human character left among the drama’s regular stable, he’s also played a vital role in keeping his friends on track, at times even drawing them back into the light. But something changed this week. Accidental though it may have been, Stiles tasted his first kill, effectively pushing him over a line he was not prepared to cross, one from which there’s no turning back.

The harrowing first 10 minutes of Monday’s episode, in which Stiles was hunted by Donovan — who blamed Stiles’ father, Sheriff Stilinski, for his own father’s paralysis — contained some of the most thrilling, horrifying sequences in the show’s five-season history. And as any fan can attest, the one thing Teen Wolf does best is horror. Frankly, if the Stiles-Donovan confrontation had been stretched to cover the entire length of the episode, it would have been a satisfying hour.

O’Brien has always demonstrated an incredible, seemingly effortless, ability to turn Stiles’ exploits into shared experiences with the audience, an ability which was in full-effect Monday. When he wrestled free from Donovan’s clutches, it felt like we were gasping for air and fighting for our lives; when he hid behind the bookcase in the library, unsure of whether to confront his attacker or keep running, it was like we were battling our own internal fight-or-flight response; and when he sat breathless in his car, spying on the police as they investigated what was now a murder scene, it was like our whole world was closing in around us.

We can’t say for sure how Stiles will deal with the fallout from his actions, but if history is any indication — we’re thinking back to Season 3’s stellar nogitsune saga — it’s safe to say that O’Brien will anchor the experience with the same vulnerability and authenticity we’ve come to expect from a performer of his caliber.

MTV continued to surprise Teen Wolf fans with the best news at Comic-Con.

The network continued its annual tradition of announcing a series renewal at Comic-Con, this time revealing Thursday that the supernatural drama would return for a sixth season.

The drama from showrunner Jeff Davis will again return for a 20-episode season, getting the early renewal after the fifth season debuted June 29 to 1.53 million total viewers — on par its most recent finale.

The drama ranks as MTV’s longest-running scripted series and comes as the Viacom-owned network continues to push further into genre fare with its Scream remake and upcoming The Shannara Chronicles, both of which are well-represented at Comic-Con.

This season marks Teen Wolf’s first without series star Tyler Hoechlin as Davis previously told THR that he had no end in sight for the drama. “There’s always talk of more. I always like to say, if the network is behind and if we still have stories to tell that get us excited, we’ll probably go for it,” he said ahead of the June return.

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Many ships have crashed and burned throughout four seasons of “Teen Wolf,” but one that has remained steady is the ultimate bro-ship of Scott (Tyler Posey) and Stiles (Dylan O’Brien). Now it is going to be tested like never before in Season 5.

Their unwavering loyalty to each other broke hearts with episodes like “Motel California” when Stiles had to talk Scott out of killing himself. Then again in Season 3 when Stiles was diagnosed with the same teenage dementia his mother had and Scott promised, “If you have it, we’ll do something. I’ll do something.”

When it turned out Stiles didn’t have dementia but was instead inhabited by an evil Japanese “jokester” spirit, Scott didn’t rest until he found a way to save his friend.

No matter what horror has landed in Beacon Hills, the best friends are always there for each other. In Season 5, they’ll be challenged by even more frightening beasts and the challenge of staying together once they graduate

“Stiles says that his dad has friends from high school that he never talks to anymore so Stiles worries that Scott and he will drift apart one day,” Posey explains to Zap2it during a “Teen Wolf” set visit. “He wants to maintain their friendship and live close to each other. Scott wants the same. He loves his buddy. They’ve been through everything together.”

However, as the first trailer for Season 5 shows, things aren’t going that smoothly for the guys. The stress of the new evil force in town clearly wears on their friendship.

“They get pulled apart a little bit. They have a blowout, which is going to be really fun to play,” Posey says. “We have toyed with Scott and Stiles getting mad at each other but this is different. There may be some tears coming from some upset fans.”

Stiles isn’t the only one pulling away from Scott. This season will test all of his relationships and Scott may have to figure out everyone without the power of his pack.

“He has a lot of love for Stiles and Kira [Arden Cho]. Those are his rocks, but they are being pulled away from him right now,” Posey says. “We haven’t really played with Scott losing his mind. He always knows what’s happening and what step to take next. He doesn’t know why his friends are being pulled away from him and he’s at a loss — which is new for him.”

Find out if Scott can put things back together — and more importantly what’s pulling everyone apart — when “Teen Wolf” Season 5 premieres Monday, June 29 at 10 p.m. ET on MTV.

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On television, they might still be teenagers. But in real life, the cast of Teen Wolf is over 21. Which means EW didn’t break any laws when we got Tyler Posey, Dylan O’Brien, and Holland Roden together a couple weeks ago for Three Rounds of socially lubricated conversation. Below, an excerpt from the beginning of our conversation. (Teen Wolf returns on June 29.)

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Drinking with Teen Wolf would’ve been illegal a couple of years ago. Did you celebrate your 21st birthdays together?
TYLER POSEY: We all went to Vegas for my birthday!
DYLAN O’BRIEN: One of the darkest weekends of our lives.
HOLLAND RODEN: I was the only girl.
POSEY: Do you remember when I hit on you?
RODEN: Tyler makes every girl feel really beautiful, because he’s always hitting on us.

Dylan, has Tyler ever hit on you?
O’BRIEN: Me more than anyone.
POSEY: I kiss him all the time.
RODEN: They’ve seen each other’s butts probably more than I’ve seen either of their butts.
POSEY: [to Dylan] I don’t think I’ve ever seen your butt before.
O’BRIEN: I’ve seen yours multiple times.

Get more fun with the cast of Teen Wolf in the newest issue of Entertainment Weekly, on sale now.

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EXCLUSIVE: Dylan O’Brien is in talks to join Peter Berg’s Deepwater Horizon opposite Mark Wahlberg. That’s the Summit Entertainment pic based on the infamous 2010 BP oil-rig explosion in the Gulf Of Mexico that killed 11 people and gushed oil into the water for 87 days. O’Brien will play Caleb Holloway, the youngest crew member, who survives but is devastated to have lost a majority of his crew.

O’Brien has developed a fervent fan base from his turn as Stiles on MTV’s Teen Wolf. In a short time, he has launched himself to blockbuster status. His feature debut was in Matt Walsh’s 2011 comedy High Road as a teenager who is kidnapped by a pot dealer. Last fall, he exploded in 20th Century Fox’s feature adaptation of the YA novel The Maze Runner, which opened to No. 1 at the domestic B.O. with $32.5M, ultimately grossing $102.4M stateside and $340.8M worldwide.

O’Brien stars in the sequel Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials which is scheduled to bow September 18.

Back in January, Berg, who previously worked with Wahlberg on Lone Survivor, replaced director J.C. Chandor on Deepwater Horizon. Berg also worked with the project’s screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan on another feature he helmed, The Kingdom. Participant Media and Lorenzo di Bonaventura’s of Di Bonaventura Pictures are producing. Deepwater Horizon will bow on September 30, 2016.

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We’ve always known Dylan O’Brien was going to be a big (read: HUGE) star, but now he has the three Golden Popcorns to prove it. *~one thousand clapping emojis~*

On Sunday night (April 12), the “Maze Runner” star walked away with the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance. He beat out Ansel Elgort (“The Fault In Our Stars”), Rosamund Pike (“Gone Girl”), David Oyelowo (“Selma”) and Ellar Coltrane (“Boyhood”) for the coveted Golden Popcorn, which we’re sure will stand proudly next to his “I Heart Sterek” teddy bear. (Not that we’ve seen the inside of his apartment or anything. That would be weird.)

But that’s not all. O’Brien also took home the Movie Award for Best Fight, which he’ll share with last year’s Breakthrough Performance winner Will Poulter.

Did you think that was it? Because it’s not. Our boo O’Brien is taking home still ANOTHER Golden Popcorn for Best Hero after wracking up more than 8.4 million votes online, narrowly defeating Trailblazer Award recipient Shailene Woodley. And fans have officially lost their chill.

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Over the last four seasons, the impossibly attractive high school heroes of Teen Wolf have squared off with werewolf hunters, a vengeful kanima, one seriously evil grandfather, a deadly pack of Alphas, ancient assassins, the nightmarish Nogitsune, werejaguars, banshees, Berserkers, a wendigo, and, of course, The Benefactor.

But, according to executive producer Jeff Davis, facing those supernatural baddies pales in comparison to the terror Scott and his pack feel in Season 5 about what happens to them after high school graduation.

“There’s this strange thing: For some reason when you graduate high school, you leave all your best friends — why do you do that? There’s a moment in the first episode where Stiles asks that question aloud. He says, ‘If we’ve met the best people in our lives, why aren’t we trying to stay with them? Why do we try and go our separate ways?’ That’s the big fear of Season 5: Who’s going to go away?” Davis told BuzzFeed News during a recent visit to the Teen Wolf set in Van Nuys, California. “Much of the previous seasons were about Scott finding and building a pack; this is going to see him possibly losing it — possibly ending up on his own without his friends by his side, wondering how he’s going to face life without them. Which is very similar to a teenager who has to go off to college and meet all new people. I think that’s a valid fear.”

But in Season 5, Davis added, the supernatural supervillains that Teen Wolf has become known for will also be making life in Beacon Hills a living hell. “For me, the tagline of this season that we use in the writers room is: The rules have changed,” he said. “The 20-episode season will be very much the world of the supernatural being turned upside down.”

What else can you expect from the next stretch of episodes? Davis broke down the new season, character by character, to reveal what Season 5 has in store for everybody.

1. Stiles Stilinski (Dylan O’Brien)
“One of the first questions we asked in the writers room for each of the characters is, ‘How can we test them? How can we challenge them in huge ways this year?’ I think we’ve come up with a really good arc for Stiles. Dylan is going to get a lot to play. This is very much a season of secrets and how secrets can break a group of friends apart, and how people can lose faith in each other. It’ll be interesting to see when Stiles loses faith in Scott, where his relationship with Malia is tested and broken. We’re going to have a lot of character drama and conflict with that.”

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The Maze Runner director Wes Ball has said that the YA film series won’t be following in the footsteps of The Hunger Games and Divergent by dividing its final movie into two parts.

A recent Hollywood trend – kick-started by Harry Potter and Twilight – has seen producers extend the lifespan of franchises by splitting the final source novel of a series into two separate movies.

Speaking to Digital Spy, director Ball said that James Dashner’s initial trilogy – The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure – would only be adapted into three films.

“I think three is the number; beginning, middle, end, that’s it. Four? I think there’s something off about four. For me, if I have any say in it, there’s three movies basically.

“We’re not going to [split a book in two], no way. I think three movies is the right number, Star Wars!”

Dashner has also penned Maze Runner prequel novel The Kill Order and will release follow-up The Fever Code in 2016.

-Source: Digital Spy

A sequel to “The Maze Runner” will arrive in theaters next September, 20th Century Fox announced on the heels of the first film’s impressive debut.

The follow-up to the young adult hit, “The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials” races into theaters on Sept. 18, 2015. There’s potential for more “Maze Runners” beyond that. Author James Dashner also penned another sequel, “The Death Cure,” that could be adapted for the big screen at a future date.

“The Maze Runner” topped the weekend box office with $32.5 million domestically and pulled in an additional $37.6 million overseas. It flew past two other new wide releases, “A Walk Among the Tombstones” and “This Is Where I Leave You,” to emerge as the highest grossing film.

The sequel will face stiffer competition from action-adventure “Everest,” which stars Jake Gyllenhaal, and an untitled Whitey Bulger biopic with Johnny Depp.

-Source: Variety