When watching “The Maze Runner,” the sci-fi dystopian flick based on the hit book by James Dashner, one might be struck by the fact that they have no clue what those slang terms are that Dylan O’Brien and co. are hurling at each other.

From “shank” to “klunk” and back again, many of the words that the trapped-in-a-box Gladers use in their strange little world are foreign to our ears, but not anymore: MTV News sat down with O’Brien, Ki Hong Lee, and Thomas Brodie-Sangster for a little vocab test, and the boys passed with flying colors.

“It’s really slang, like, ‘Hey, man. Hey, shank, what’s going on?’” Lee explains of their first word. “But it could be derogatory as well.”

That clears it up… I think. Luckily, O’Brien was on hand to make things even more clear by using the word in a sentence: “Man, this shank’s always taking my pencil.”

“The Maze Runner” is in theaters this Friday, September 19.

MANILA, Philippines – During the recent junket for The Maze Runner (opening tomorrow, Sept. 17), the film’s director Wes Ball recounted an amusing incident about the way the movie’s lead actor, Dylan O’Brien was cast, or rather, was almost not cast.

Wes related that when he was approached to direct the adaptation of the best-selling series written by James Dashner after Katherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Red Riding Hood) dropped out of the project, he went about the usual process of casting for the parts.

“We weren’t looking at faces, we weren’t looking at good looks, all that stuff — fortunately, we are okay in that department, too — but we found good actors that can be truthful,” he stated. “I wanted spectacle with an emotional core to it. I can’t just have shiny pictures.”

First one to be cast was for the role of Teresa, which went to British stunner Kaya Scodelario who was just coming off a critically-acclaimed performance as Kathy in acclaimed director Andrea Arnold’s reimagining of Wuthering Heights. Kaya first gained worldwide acclaim through her role as Effy in the provocative TV series, Skins.

The other part that was also immediately cast was that of Gally, which went to another Brit actor and pre-We’re the Millers Will Poulter (he was the naïve and geeky fourth-wheel in that hit movie whose private part was bit a spider!). Will landed the part because of his distinctive eyebrows according to Wes.

The one part that took a long time to cast was that of Thomas, the lead character in this gritty story of a group of boys trapped inside a mechanical maze set in a not-so-distant America. The director wanted to cast the late River Phoenix — yes, he was serious — but knowing that River has long been gone, he went looking for an actor who can remind him of the late actor’s intensity as displayed in the film The Mosquito Coast and Dylan, unfortunately, was among many actors he refused to cast.
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As a co-star on MTV’s supernatural series “Teen Wolf,” Dylan O’Brien has already gained quite a fan base. The young actor will test whether the “Wolf” pack will follow him to the bigscreen on Sept. 19, when he stars in Fox’s adaptation of the popular YA novel “The Maze Runner.”

Compare “Teen Wolf” with the “Maze Runner” shoot.

(In “Teen Wolf”), my character has the least amount of action on the show. It’s kind of the same mode as “Maze Runner.” Both characters are always helpless and trying to survive.

How did you and “Maze Runner” co-star Will Poulter get along?

Straight off the bat, we just clicked. When I met up with him later in his room, the whole cast was there cooking dinner. From there on out, we were always together.

You’re no stranger to Comic-Con, having gone for “Teen Wolf.” This year, you repped two projects.

I was told it was going to be crazier, and I ended up thinking it was easier, because I was bouncing back and forth talking about both projects rather than one thing all day.

Which fan base would you say is the most passionate?

I haven’t gotten a huge glimpse of the “Maze Runner” fan-base quite yet. Seems similar with age and casting, and they share a similar audience. To me the “Maze Runner” fans have been so supportive of everything I have done. It makes it easier to adapt a book that is popular with kids because of how excited they are about the project you don’t get the criticisms you would get with other projects.

What is the strangest thing a fan has done at the Con?

We were walking through Petco Park after a signing, and this girl plowed through security and grabbed onto my neck and started pulling. Her grip was so impressively strong that this huge security guard was struggling to get her off of me. I was like, “Whoa. That’s kind of crazy.”

-Source: Variety

In four seasons, Teen Wolf has morphed from a guilty pleasure into a bloody thrill ride, making teen-scene royalty out of leads Tyler Posey (as titular teen wolf Scott McCall) and Dylan O’Brien (as his trusted friend Stiles). Offscreen, the 22-year-old actors are real-life pals who display an easy rapport despite some philosophical differences on things like sports and tattoos.

EW visited the show’s Los Angeles set recently for scoop on the sexiest, scariest, most bonkers show on MTV. Check out the extended interview below:

EW: This year, you premiered the season while still working on it. Did that throw you off to watch the premiere then come to work?
TYLER POSEY: It caught me completely off guard. We never really had a season start filming as we’re shooting it. It’s hard to be focused on both, but it’s exciting. The next day, I’ll always wake up to a text from Dylan like, ‘The episode was great, you kicked ass.’”
DYLAN O’BRIEN: I watched it at like 3:30 in the morning.

Is that your preferred viewing experience?
O’BRIEN: Sometimes that’s how it has to be. We used to do viewing parties all the time. This is something we’re not used to, how the show just comes out while we’re working. But I was stoked to go home and watch the episode. I had adrenaline.

As you near the end of season four, do you ever think back to how much Teen Wolf has changed since that first year?
POSEY: All the time. So much of this show is Dylan and me and our relationship, and the thing that blows my mind is how young I felt when we first started hanging out.
O’BRIEN: And at such a transitional point in our lives, too. We were 18, and it’s only been four years, but I feel like for us that’s a lot longer of a four years than for anyone else.
POSEY: We’ve gone through some really cool stuff with each other.

Do you remember the screen test?
POSEY: That’s where we first really hit it off.
O’BRIEN: I’ll never forget that.

What was your first impression of each other?
O’BRIEN: [laughs]
POSEY: You go first.
O’BRIEN: Well, the first thing I remember about Tyler… He walked in and asked immediately where the bathroom was. And I remember just thinking, “Wow, he’s really comfortable. That’s so badass.” And then we started talking immediately, because the test was a disaster. It took seven and a half hours.
POSEY: It took a long time.
O’BRIEN: And at one point, they let us go across the street to have lunch because they were still working things out.
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Stiles Stilinski has survived serial killer werewolves, being possessed by Japanese trickster spirits and (so far) a benefactor bent on killing all of his supernatural friends on “Teen Wolf.” Could he survive a constantly changing maze filled with robotic spider-slugs with gigantic fangs though?

“Stiles would probably survive,” actor Dylan O’Brien admits during a Q&A session following a screening of his new movie “The Maze Runner.” “I also played a fun guy named Jimmy in ‘High Road’ — it was one of the first things I did — and I think it’d be pretty fun to see him in the maze.”

“The Maze Runner” is based off the first book in James Dashner’s best-selling dystopian young-adult trilogy. The series follows Thomas (O’Brien), a super-intelligent young man who gets his memory wiped before being dropped into a giant maze called “The Glade,” already populated with other memory-less young boys. Once Thomas arrives the routine of “The Glade” goes haywire and it becomes clear that Thomas is the key to all of the boys escaping.

The dramatic adventure thriller is a bit of a departure for O’Brien, who is most known for being the sarcastic sidekick to Tyler Posey’s Scott McCall on “Teen Wolf.” He’s also had comedic turns in feature films like “The Internship” and “The First Time.”

“I was nervous, but I’m thankful I had such an amazing cast around me,” O’Brien says about taking on his first dramatic lead. “I just wanted to do the movie justice.”

O’Brien completed filming for “The Maze Runner” last summer, right before jumping into production on “Teen Wolf” Season 3B — a season that showcased a whole new side of O’Brien’s acting potential. Instead of sarcastic remarks and spastic physical comedy, Stiles became one of the most terrifying villains the show has seen. O’Brien credits his “The Maze Runner” experience with helping him prepare for Stiles’ dark turn.

“Drama is what I need to practice the most,” O’Brien says. “It was great to take [this experience] back to Stiles and see that I’ve learned some things.”

You can catch Dylan O’Brien as Thomas in “The Maze Runner” when it opens in theaters on Sept. 19.

Season 4 episode 10 of “Teen Wolf” — titled “Monstrous” — will premiere on Sun. Aug. 24 at 7 p.m. ET as a lead in to the VMA pre-show on MTV. It’ll re-air at “Teen Wolf”‘s regular time at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Aug. 25.

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What more can you tell us about what’s going to happen to Malia and Stiles’s relationship on Teen Wolf beyond Jeff Davis’ very ambiguous answer of “They’ve got a rocky road ahead.” I don’t want/need it to be all sunshine and lollipops, but is this a relationship that we’ll actually see develop as Malia and Stiles work through the natural hazards of living/loving in Beacon Hills or are we just being strung along for some kind of heartbreak from which there is no return? —Jennifer
Well Jennifer, I promise not to use the words “rocky road.” What I do know is that Stiles and Malia will find themselves together in episode 10, titled “Monstrous,” but based on the fact that they’re going to uncover the origins of The Dead Pool, I can’t promise it will be all that romantic of a scenario. And come episode 11, it sounds like everyone is going to have something to worry about when Scott and his pack engage in a battle with someone who’s being described as “an old enemy.” Any guesses?

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Dylan O’Brien’s big brown eyes widen as he looks up at a massive concrete cross section of the maze, a living puzzle he’s set to conquer. A large camera zooms in on his face, coated in a thin layer of dirt, as he adjusts the collar of his blue shirt. The now 22-year-old is filming The Maze Runner—Wes Ball’s adventure thriller based on James Dashner’s best-selling YA book of the same name—on location in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. From the highway you’d never know that inside this colossal warehouse (a former Sam’s Club), fall’s hottest flick is deep in production.

“We have eight weeks and 30 million dollars,” Dylan says to me, catching his breath between takes, nodding at the massive labyrinth set he just came from. We’re sitting in director’s chairs under a sign that reads pharmacy. He adds, “If we pull it off, people will be like, ‘How the hell did they do that?'” A tight schedule means long, exhausting days and very little sleep for the young star. But he doesn’t mind: “This will forever be one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”

It almost never happened, though. Dylan has said that Ball initially thought his hair was “too MTV” for the role. It’s true—Dylan’s MTV ties run deep. He’s beloved to television audiences for his best-friend role as Stiles Stilinski on the network’s hit show Teen Wolf, recently renewed for a fifth season. But he’s not confined to the small screen. “I’ve always wanted to do action movies,” Dylan says. “I’m a huge Indiana Jones fan. And now I know firsthand that if a stunt coordinator offers you a pad to wear or land on, you take the pad. I throw my body around like a rag doll!”

His character, Thomas, is an ordinary teen who wakes up in a strange place, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. He’s surrounded by about 30 other boys (the Gladers), who learn to survive in a self-sustaining community while attempting to find a way out of the ever-changing and fatal maze that surrounds it. “In my mind, he’s the quintessential hero,” Dylan says. “Thomas discovers he has this courage inside of him that he learns how to access—it’s really fun to watch.”

The cast—who lives together in a local, no-frills extended-stay hotel—features a bevy of Young Hollywood’s brightest, including Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Ki Hong Lee. “We have a great vibe on our set,” Dylan says. “I host rehearsals outside my hotel room every night, and we’ll all run our scenes for the next day. I have a little buddy relationship with every single one of them.” But even with his penchant for over-preparedness, the actor didn’t have time to train for his Runner role. He’d finished shooting Teen Wolf in Los Angeles and, a week later, packed up and headed to Baton Rouge. “I worked with my stunt double for only a few days in preproduction,” he says. “But I felt it suited Thomas to not be in amazing shape.”
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Got any scoop on Stiles and Lydia from Teen Wolf? —Amy
Executive producer Jeff Davis gives some information about the next episode that could definitely affect the couple. Let’s just say that the episode is titled “Weaponized,” and it brings in a brand new assassin called The Chemist. According to Davis, the episode “will also include a crucial moment between Stiles and Malia that may threaten to destroy their relationship.”

-Source: EW.com

The network is bringing back the hourlong series for 20 more episodes.

MTV has renewed Teen Wolf for a fifth season.

Executive producer Jeff Davis announced at Thursday’s Comic-Con panel in Ballroom 20 that the series will return for an expanded two-part 20-episode run.

Dylan Sprayberry, who joined the show early in the current season, has been promoted to series regular for the new season.

The renewal news doesn’t come as much of a surprise for one of MTV’s top scripted dramas. Currently in the middle of its fourth season, Teen Wolf returned to 2.2 million viewers for its June 23 launch and has averaged around 1.7 million viewers.

Teen Wolf remains a a valuable property for MTV, which is seeking to expand its presence in the scripted arena with presold titles with its recent series order for Shannara. With Teen Wolf remaining in the MTV family, it joins originals Awkward, Faking It, Finding Carter and the upcoming Happyland.

Teen Wolf was developed by Davis, who also serves as executive producer. Additional executive producers include Russell Mulcahy, Marty Adelstein, Rene Echevarria, Tony DiSanto, Liz Gateley and Ian Stokes. Tyler Posey, Dylan O’Brien, Tyler Hoechlin, Holland Roden and Sprayberry star.

-Source: Hollywood Reporter

Network Takes a Bite Out of the Convention Center Floor with First Ever “Teen Wolf” Themed Booth

New York, NY (June 26, 2014)—MTV announced today that its hit drama series “Teen Wolf” will return to San Diego Comic-Con for the fifth year in a row with a panel featuring series’ stars on Thursday, July 24. “Teen Wolf” will also have a show-themed booth on the convention center floor for the first time ever.

Tyler Posey, Dylan O’Brien, Tyler Hoechlin, Holland Roden, plus new cast members Shelley Hennig and Dylan Sprayberry, along with Executive Producer Jeff Davis, will once again take Comic-Con by storm, giving fans a can’t-miss panel in which they will share season four secrets, debut a new mid-season trailer and answer fan questions. The panel will be moderated by Buzzfeed Senior Editor, Jarett Wieselman.

The “Teen Wolf” booth (#3729) will be open to fans all weekend long and will be highlighted by signings and special appearances by cast and crew. The booth will also feature four full days of activations where fans can insert themselves into a custom character poster and create their own “Teen Wolf”-inspired monster. Additionally, MTV commissioned artist Swann Smith to illustrate a limited edition bestiary that serves as a full guide to the creatures of Beacon Hills. The bestiary will be distributed for free throughout the weekend and Swann will be on hand signing copies at the booth.

-Source: SDCC