Maze Runner Characters: Names, Actors and Fates

The main Maze Runner characters are the Gladers Thomas, Teresa Agnes, Newt, Minho, Alby, Chuck, Gally and Frypan, plus Brenda and Jorge, who arrive in the second film. They are spread across three films: The Maze Runner (2014), directed by Wes Ball, then Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) and Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018). Deaths and betrayals are discussed throughout, so the block carries a spoiler warning. If you would rather see the films first, the maze runner movies in order guide sets out the sequence.

Thomas is the lead of the saga, played by Dylan O'Brien in all three films. He arrives in the Glade in a rising metal lift, remembering only his first name, and he cannot accept the rule that only runners may enter the maze. In the first film he spots a pattern in the shifting walls and works out a route. By the end of The Scorch Trials he has vowed to kill Ava Paige and rescue his captured friends, and in The Death Cure he learns that his own blood can produce a cure. The full arc is covered in thomas maze runner.

Teresa Agnes is played by Kaya Scodelario and is the first girl the Glade has ever received. She arrives the day after Thomas with a note saying she is the last one. In The Scorch Trials she secretly passes the location of the Right Arm camp to WCKD, which then raids it. In The Death Cure she works inside WCKD, and she dies when the headquarters collapses after she removes Thomas's blood for the cure. More detail is at teresa maze runner.

The Gladers are the boys who built a small society inside the maze walls, and six of them carry the story. Alby (Aml Ameen) is the leader in the first film and is hurt when Thomas follows him into the maze. Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) is a steady voice in all three films, and in The Death Cure he is infected with the Flare and dies by his own hand. Minho (Ki Hong Lee) is a runner, kills Gally in the first film and is then captured in the second. Chuck (Blake Cooper) bonds with Thomas early on and is shot by Gally. Gally (Will Poulter) clashes with Thomas from the start, yet returns in The Death Cure to help the group enter the Last City. Frypan (Dexter Darden) appears in all three films and travels with Thomas and Newt to rescue Minho. Individual profiles cover newt maze runner, minho maze runner and gally maze runner.

Brenda and Jorge are the two locals the survivors meet in the Scorch, a burned desert, in the second film, and they travel on with the group toward the mountains. Brenda is played by Rosa Salazar and Jorge by Giancarlo Esposito, and both return in The Death Cure. Others who join the fight include Aris Jones (Jacob Lofland) and Sonya (Katherine McNamara), two Immunes captured in the raid, plus Harriet (Nathalie Emmanuel), Vince (Barry Pepper), Mary Cooper (Lili Taylor, killed in that raid) and Lawrence (Walton Goggins), who sacrifices himself to break through the city wall. Winston (Alexander Flores) is lost to the infection in the desert. Profiles of brenda maze runner and jorge maze runner go further.

WCKD is the organization behind the maze, and its two faces are Ava Paige and Janson. Ava Paige is played by Patricia Clarkson in all three films, and Janson by Aidan Gillen in the second and third. Janson welcomes the Gladers into his facility as protector from the Cranks, people ruined by a deadly infection, before Thomas learns the place is run by WCKD. In The Death Cure Janson kills Paige and is then killed by the Cranks that Thomas lets loose. Read more at ava paige maze runner or the wicked maze runner guide.

Teresa Agnes is the first girl in the Maze Runner story, since the lift that brings the Gladers to their home had never carried one before, which is why her arrival matters so much in the first film. The women in the wider cast include Brenda (Rosa Salazar), Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson), Harriet (Nathalie Emmanuel), Sonya (Katherine McNamara) and Mary Cooper (Lili Taylor). The full actor list across all three films is in the maze runner cast guide.

In my opinion, the trilogy is at its most interesting where it reverses its own characters, and the clearest case is Gally. In the first film he is the hostile Glader who shoots Chuck, and Minho kills him for it. By The Death Cure he is back, helping Thomas get into the Last City, so the saga turns its antagonist into an ally rather than leaving him as a one note villain.

Teresa is a similar case. She arrives in the lift as a mystery with a note, betrays the Right Arm in the second film, and then dies in The Death Cure after taking Thomas's blood for the cure. It could be argued that her choices make her the most tragic figure in the story, since she is never simply on one side.

The losses are also staged differently. Chuck dies suddenly, in the middle of the escape from the maze, while Newt's death in The Death Cure is slow and chosen: Thomas refuses to end his life, and Newt stabs himself. Perhaps that contrast is the clearest sign of how the saga changes in tone, from a survival thriller in the Glade to a story about friends being lost to the Flare. Newt's last gesture, a note in his pendant asking Thomas to look after everyone, closes the trilogy and gives Thomas the final line of purpose.

The cast stays remarkably stable. Thomas, Newt, Minho and Frypan are played by the same four actors in all three films, with Ava Paige a constant too, and the new faces in each sequel (Brenda and Jorge in the Scorch, Lawrence and Sonya in the Last City) widen the world around them. That continuity helps the farewells in the third film land, because the audience has known these faces since the Glade.

No new film has a confirmed cast or release date. TheWrap reported on 2024-05-03 that 20th Century Studios is developing a reboot described as a continuation of the original trilogy, with Jack Paglen in talks to write and Wes Ball attached as a producer. The latest on the new maze runner movie is kept up to date.