Maze Runner Movie Trailer: Official Trailers for All Three Films

The Maze Runner franchise has three theatrical films, so every Maze Runner trailer for a finished film points to one of them: The Maze Runner (2014), Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) or Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018). Wes Ball directed all three, Dylan O'Brien leads each as Thomas, and Kaya Scodelario and Thomas Brodie-Sangster stay in the top three billing throughout. That continuity helps when you are searching, because the trailers share a cast and a creative team even as the story moves from a walled farm to a ruined desert to a guarded city. If you want the full list of films first, the guide to how many Maze Runner movies are there gives the count, and the hub for Maze Runner movies links to everything else.

The trailer for the first film is the one to open with, since it sells the simplest premise in the series. In the film, released in the US on September 19, 2014, a teenager named Thomas wakes up 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 it is ringed by huge stone walls with gates that open by day into a giant maze and shut at night. The boys have lived there for three years, and a team of runners maps the maze each day looking for an exit. The film ran 113 minutes on a $34 million budget and took in $348 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. Searches for a "maze runner 1 trailer" or "the maze runner trailer" are about this film, and the page for the Maze Runner 2014 covers its cast and production.

The second film opens up the world, so its trailer is the one that shows the series leaving the Glade behind. In Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, released in the US on September 18, 2015, Thomas and the surviving Gladers are brought to a walled facility run by a man named Janson, who says they are being protected from the Cranks, people ruined by a deadly infection. Thomas grows suspicious and learns the facility belongs to WCKD, then he and his friends flee into the Scorch, a burned and ruined desert. The cast adds Giancarlo Esposito as Jorge, Rosa Salazar as Brenda and Aidan Gillen as Janson, which helps if a trailer thumbnail shows faces you do not recognize. The film runs 131 minutes, and its details sit on the page for Maze Runner The Scorch Trials.

A search for a "maze runner 3 trailer" leads to Maze Runner: The Death Cure, the third and so far final film, released in the US on January 26, 2018, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. By this point Thomas and his friends are fighting WCKD, which has been experimenting on young people who are immune to the Flare virus in search of a cure. Their friend Minho is a captive and is being used in that research, so Thomas, Newt and Frypan decide to go to the Last City, WCKD's heavily guarded home base, to get him back. Gally, whom they thought was dead, turns up and helps them get inside, and Teresa, who now works with WCKD, is a key figure in whether the plan can work. At 143 minutes it is the longest of the three, and the film has its own page for Maze Runner The Death Cure.

Taken together, the trailers trace a series that grows in scale with every film, and in my opinion that is the best way to choose which one to watch. The setting moves from the enclosed Glade, to the burned Scorch, to the Last City, and the numbers follow the same curve: the runtime climbs from 113 to 131 to 143 minutes, and the budget rises from $34 million to $61 million and then $62 million, according to Box Office Mojo and The Numbers. The box office moved the other way, with worldwide grosses of $348 million, $312 million and $288 million. It could be argued that this explains why the first trailer feels like a puzzle and the last feels like a heist: the Glade story is about one question (how do we get out?), while The Death Cure asks Thomas, Newt and Frypan to break into WCKD's home base to get Minho back. If you only have time for one trailer, perhaps the first is the best guide to what hooked audiences, and the final film's trailer is the one to watch if you already know the cast.

There is no trailer for a new Maze Runner movie, because the film is still in development and no filming dates have been reported. TheWrap reported on May 3, 2024 that 20th Century Studios is developing a new film, with Jack Paglen in talks to write. Wes Ball is attached as a producer rather than as director, alongside Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Lee Stollman, Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen, all reported by the same outlet. That report was not an official studio announcement, and no release date has been set. Anyone searching for a "new maze runner movie trailer" will therefore land on footage for the 2014, 2015 and 2018 films. The current position is tracked on the page for the new Maze Runner movie.

The three films are best watched in release order, and the Maze Runner movies in order guide explains why that is also the chronological order. The trailers lean on the cast, so the pages for Thomas in Maze Runner, Newt in Maze Runner and Minho in Maze Runner are useful companions, and the Maze Runner cast page lists the full credits. The Maze Runner books vs movies page covers how the screen versions differ. To watch the full films rather than the trailers, see where to watch Maze Runner.