The Maze Runner franchise turned Dylan O’Brien into a promising young star. However, the
final film in the series stalled his meteoric rise to the top. Here's why Dylan O'Brien
hasn't been the same since Maze Runner: The Death Cure.
Dylan O'Brien got his start on MTV's Teen Wolf. He played fan favorite Stiles Stilinski,
best friend to teen werewolf Scott McCall, and served as a source of comic relief. As
the show evolved, Stiles became more serious and emotional, and O'Brien was able to show
skill at horror, drama, and romance, alongside Stiles' usual goofy antics.
Like all good things, Teen Wolf came to an end in 2017. But O'Brien was already on to
bigger and better things. Young, talented, and easy on the eyes, O'Brien was a prime
candidate for the growing demand for heartthrob actors to star in young adult novel-inspired
movies.
In 2013, he was cast as the lead in The Maze Runner, effectively propelling him into big
screen stardom
First released in 2014, The Maze Runner film series followed the trend found in dystopian
young adult novels. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic society, where the world
is controlled by an all-powerful organization that the plucky main character and his band
of unlikely friends must fight against. Sound familiar?
"I volunteer as tribute.“ “I believe we have a volunteer."
Both movies were adrenaline-filled sci-fi romps that made back their budget threefold
upon release. But what about the third and final film, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, you
ask? Well, that's where things got complicated for Dylan O'Brien.
Acting can be dangerous, especially when an actor does their own stunts. The cast and
crew on the set of Maze Runner: The Death Cure found that out the hard way when a stunt
involving series lead Dylan O'Brien went terribly wrong.
In March 2016, on a set in Vancouver, Canada, O'Brien was reportedly struck by a vehicle
onset. Details are few and accounts are inconsistent, but what we do know is that filming was halted.
O'Brien was taken to the hospital for observation and treatment, having reportedly suffered
from a concussion, a facial fracture, and possible brain trauma.
To this day, O'Brien is uncomfortable going into particulars about the accident and has
cut off reporters digging deep for the nitty-gritty details.
"Um, it wasn't easy, you know - um, um - it's, you know, it was - ahhhhh."
At first, filming for The Death Cure was scheduled to resume in May, just a few months after
O'Brien's accident. Unfortunately, May came and went, and O'Brien was still recovering.
Fans and media alike were unsure of the extent of his injuries as he quietly healed, far
away from social media and paparazzi.
Filming was ultimately delayed indefinitely. Without O'Brien, there wasn't much that production
was able to shoot. At the same time, O'Brien had been cast as the lead for American Assassin,
an action thriller based on a Vince Flynn novel of the same name. Projects were starting
to pile up, and the pressure was on O'Brien in a big way.
We don't know a lot about how O'Brien's injuries affected him physically, and O'Brien likes
it that way. He told Vulture,
"There's really been one or two people who have tried to dig and find out what happened,
and I cut it off. And I'm comfortable with where I draw the line."
For O'Brien, the recovery process was overwhelming and took a lot longer than the optimistic
few weeks that Maze Runner director Wes Ball had previously reported. O'Brien took a total
of six months to recover from his injuries, saying that summer was one of the lowest points
in his life:
"I had lost a lot of function, just in my daily routine. I wasn't even at a point where
I felt like I could handle social situations, let alone showing up and being responsible
for work every day. Long hours on set, delivering a performance and carrying a movie ... it
just makes your palms sweat."
He told Collider,
"I mean, I was still in the hospital at that point, so there's no way I was like, "Oh yeah!
I'll do that movie!"
For a brief period of time, O'Brien wondered if he would ever act again, telling People,
"The first time I saw my face I was like, 'That's it.'"
However, he was also attached to the film American Assassin, which had to start filming
soon. Otherwise, the production studio would lose the rights to the story.
But eventually, O'Brien decided to move forward with the project. He explained to Vulture,
"I didn't want to let it go, and I also had this really interesting, deeper connection
to this character over the course of those four months because of what I was going through."
Like his character, Mitch Rapp, O'Brien went through intensive training for two months
following the accident that made him question everything, and Assassin director Michael
Cuesta believes that O'Brien's experiences brought truth to the character.
"My guess is if you and I go hand-to-hand you can probably figure out inside of 20 seconds
whether or not I have what it takes to make it through your selection process, so…"
Talking with Cinema Blend, O'Brien explained that going back to Maze Runner was an incredibly
tough decision. He explained,
"I wasn't sure what was going to happen. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, to be honest,
for a really long time."
Of course, after finishing American Assassin, he felt more confident in his abilities. He
said to Vulture,
"I knew it was going to be really hard, harder than Assassin probably, but [I thought] if
I got through that, I can get through this, and I think I'll come out of the other side
being really happy that I did it. And I did."
A year after his accident, filming resumed on the set of Maze Runner: The Death Cure,
this time in Cape Town, South Africa.
Death Cure wrapped up the story of Thomas, giving fans and O'Brien closure. But what
about that stunt gone wrong? In the end, O'Brien insisted that the shot the one where he was
injured be left in the film. In an interview with USA Today, O'Brien said,
"My response was actually was like, 'I need you to [leave the scene in], in a way. I would
be more heartbroken than if it just went to waste.' "
Beyond Teen Wolf and The Maze Runner, O'Brien voiced Bumblebee in the Bumblebee Transformers
film. Plus, he's back on set with productions like YouTube Red's Weird City, and upcoming
projects like The Education of Fredrick Fitzell and Monster Problems.
O'Brien is also back to doing stunts on the Australian set of Monster Problems. The film
is set to release in 2021, and it's sure to feature the kind of excellent, adrenaline-driven
performance we've come to expect from Dylan O'Brien, back on his feet at last.
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