Despite unfortunate news about Dylan O’Brien’s Maze Runner injury two weeks ago, it now looks like the actor plans to be fully recovered within a few months.
Deadline reports Dylan O’Brien is joining the book to film adaptation of American Assassin, which will begin filming this summer. The actor will play the lead character Mitch Rapp, and will be joined by Michael Keaton who’ll play Stan Hurley. Lionsgate is hoping to turn this into a series (there are no less than 12 books by Vince Flynn for the studio to work with).
O’Brien’s casting comes at an interesting time. Less than two weeks ago we learned that filming on The Maze Runner finale The Death Cure was put on an indefinite hold because the actor needed more time to recover. The cast and crew were sent home from the Vancouver, Canada set, meaning that they now have to find a new time to shoot. This will likely be a challenging task, because they’ll have to find a time that works for most — if not all — of their stars.
Now Dylan O’Brien has a new project of his own that’ll get in the way, though the fact that he joined this movie suggests he knew they wouldn’t be able to film The Death Cure this summer anyway.
The Maze Runner threequel was only a few days into the production when the actor had his accident, so there’s still a lot left for director Wes Ball to film.
If they can’t shoot the movie before Dylan starts American Assassin, they’ll have to wait until after, meaning the end of this year may be the earliest they can restart. In which case, The Death Cure will almost certainly not make its planned February 2017 release date.
Welp, congrats to Dylan anyway on his new role!