How Many Maze Runner Movies Are There?

Three Maze Runner movies are out: The Maze Runner in 2014, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials in 2015 and Maze Runner: The Death Cure in 2018. Wes Ball directed every one of them and Dylan O'Brien plays Thomas in each. If you are new to the series, the Maze Runner movies in order page gives the viewing sequence, and the Maze Runner movies hub covers the wider franchise.

The series grew with each entry: the runtimes climb from just under two hours to well over two, and the budget nearly doubled between the first film and the second. The wait before the third film was also longer, with a little over two years between September 2015 and January 2018 against a single year between the first two.

The first film, The Maze Runner (2014), starts with Thomas waking in a rising metal lift with no memory except his first name. He arrives in the Glade, a grassy farm area run by boys who have each lost their past, and which is ringed by huge stone walls. Gates in those walls open by day into a giant maze and shut at night, and a team of runners maps the maze daily in search of an exit. Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter and Patricia Clarkson round out the main cast.

In Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015), Thomas and the surviving Gladers are brought to a walled facility run by a man named Janson. He says they are being protected from the Cranks, people ruined by a deadly infection, but Thomas grows suspicious and learns the facility belongs to WCKD, the group behind the maze. The group then flees into the Scorch, a burned and ruined desert, where Giancarlo Esposito and Rosa Salazar join the cast as Jorge and Brenda.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018) picks up with Thomas and his friends fighting WCKD, which has been experimenting on young people who are immune to the Flare virus. Minho is a WCKD captive used in that research, so Thomas, Newt and Frypan head for the Last City, WCKD's heavily guarded home base, to get him back. Gally turns up and helps them get inside, and Teresa, now working with WCKD, is a key figure in whether the plan can work. For the full cast across all three, see the Maze Runner cast page.

Yes, all three Maze Runner movies tell one continuous story, and each film follows on from the one before it. The same core Gladers return, Thomas, Newt, Minho and Frypan among them, and the same organization, WCKD, drives the plot from the maze to the desert to the Last City. As such, the films are meant to be watched in sequence. The Maze Runner timeline lays out the events in order, and the Maze Runner characters page covers the people involved, including Thomas, Newt and Minho.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure is the last Maze Runner movie released so far, and no further film has been released or dated. According to TheWrap on May 3, 2024, 20th Century Studios is developing a new Maze Runner film, described as a reboot or continuation of the original trilogy, with Jack Paglen in talks to write. The same report lists Wes Ball among the producers, alongside Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Lee Stollman, Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen. That was a trade report and not an official studio announcement, and no cast, release date or filming dates have been set. The new Maze Runner movie page tracks any change in status.

The first film took $348 million worldwide on a $34 million budget, according to Box Office Mojo, the second took $312 million on $61 million and the third $288 million on $62 million. Each film earned less than the one before it, though all three comfortably covered their budgets. The Maze Runner box office page breaks the figures down by market, and where to watch Maze Runner lists the services currently carrying each film. John Paesano composed the music for all three, which is covered on the Maze Runner soundtrack page.

In my opinion, the trilogy is best understood as three different kinds of film sharing one cast. The Maze Runner is a closed-room puzzle, built around the Glade, the shutting gates and the runners' nightly return. According to the Motion Picture Association, the maze walls and the Glade were physical builds, with the farm set constructed around St. Francisville, and that practical scale explains why the first film feels so contained. The Scorch Trials swaps that confinement for an open desert and a chase, and The Death Cure turns into a heist on the walls of the Last City, with Minho as the objective. It could be argued that the series loses its central mystery after the first film, since the maze is solved and WCKD becomes a plain antagonist. That being said, the repeating cast keeps the arc readable: Thomas, Newt, Minho and Frypan carry all three, which is why I would not skip the first film and start in the desert.