Hypable spoke with The Maze Runner author James Dashner about his experience on The Scorch Trials set and what’s coming up for him next.

The importance of being earnest

One of the first things you’ll notice about James Dashner is his enthusiasm for The Maze Runner movie. Not all authors are as invested in the adaptation of their book, and so Dashner’s excitement is contagious. “Thank you for that, that’s very nice,” he says after we tell him how much we, as fans, appreciate it.

“I can tell you that my enthusiasm is very genuine,” he continues. “I feel like I’ve been very lucky with this film. That they worked so hard to stay true to the spirit and tone of my book. So I’m glad it’s genuine so I don’t have to fake it!”

And exactly how important is that enthusiasm in terms of an adaptations success? “I think it’s extremely important,” Dashner replies. “Especially for the first film of a franchise. You wan to have that built in base of fans of a book. And if an author himself or herself can’t get into it, then you’re in big trouble. So I think Fox was very wise to involve me in the process and work to please our fans so much — I think it’s all worked out really well.”

We couldn’t agree more, and it certainly shows in the final version of the film. But was does Dashner think now that he can look back on the process? “You know it’s just such a cool thing,” he says. “It’s definitely the highlight of my career. And it’s nice to be able to let go of some of the stress and worry, you know about whether or not the film could succeed, whether the sequels would be made.”

He also says he’s glad they had fun, “despite the stress and stuff.” But the best part about The Maze Runner being successful? “I think it’s just going to be a really fun two or three years with the sequels and everything and more fans coming to the books. So it’s just a very exciting time.”

A new installment

Not all of that excitement is due to the Scorch Trials being green-lit. In fact, Dashner will also be revisiting this world in the form of a new prequel novel called The Fever Code. “I’m very excited about it,” he says. “This particular prequel has been in my head for a very long time. Even when I was writing The Maze Runner. You know, ’cause I had mapped out a lot of stuff that happens — because The Maze Runner is so based on mystery and intrigue — so it’s going to be really fun to finally dive into so many of these scenes that have been in my head and sketched out for so long.”

And Dashner has a very good reason as to why fans of the trilogy should be excitement about this new addition to the series: “It’s going to be, in a way, a resurrection of a lot of these characters that didn’t quite make it. It’s going to lead right up to the beginning of The Maze Runner and we’re going to see Newt and Alby and Thomas and Teresa and all of these people.”

Count us in.

Maybe a little too good

But Dashner does struggle from time to time given the success of the casting for this film. He says one of the biggest challenges is not having the movie series color his writing process and trying to imagine Thomas and the other characters how he had initially written them, and not as the versions in the film.

“In every way imaginable those cast members from the movie have become my characters,” Dashner explains. “They did such a good job and that movie is so special to me that it’s hard for me to differentiate. So I am trying to be careful — because the prequel has to be 100% based on the books. So I’ve actually gone through it and done a reread of my books and taken really detailed notes to make sure I stay consistent to the books and not let the movie itself distract me or confuse me. But I do feel like the cast members did such a great job that there’s no problem of them trying to be in my head as I write about them. So it’s kind of a careful mix between the two.”

‘Scorch Trials’

And as all that’s going on The Scorch Trials is currently filming. Even better? Dashner visited the set recently and told us about some of his favorite parts. “It was an absolutely awesome experience to go back to this thing, kinda starting all over again on a new film. Seeing so many of the people I made friends with on the first film,” he says.

Dashner says the highlight for him was meeting a certain actor that recently joined the ranks of the cast. “I’m a huge fan of Breaking Bad, the TV show, and we’re so honored to have Giancarlo Esposito playing the part of Jorge,” Dashner says. “It was really cool to see how excited he was to meet me. He gave me a big hug, he told me his daughter is a huge fan, then he gave me his address ’cause I told him I’d send something to his daughter. And for me as a person it was just surreal that Gus from Breaking Bad was being all nice to me!”

And what about those new kids we’ve been hearing so much about? “I was only there for a short period of time and they were doing some pretty specific stuff,” he says, “but I did get to meet Rosa Salazar, who’s playing Brenda. And she’s absolutely fantastic. She’s got more energy than even Dylan O’Brien, I think, which is saying something! It’s going to be fun seeing her on screen.”

Dashner also explains that the world-building is what excited him most about the Maze Runner sequel. “You know, when I wrote The Scorch Trials, I wanted to feel so different from the first book, to give a new experience to my readers,” he says. “The desert landscape and the ruined city and the cranks — so much of this atmosphere, I just can not wait to see Wes Ball’s mind take that and put it on the big screen. It’s going to be awesome.”

Coming up next

We have no doubt about that. Another awesome project coming up is Dashner’s new series, The Mortality Doctrine. He says he’s poured his “heart and soul” into it. “The third book will be coming out probably late next year and I’ve been working on edits and revisions,” he says. “I’m really, really proud of that series. So I’m hoping that all of these new people coming into The Maze Runner, when they’re done with that, they’ll give my new series a try ’cause I’m very proud of it.”

The Maze Runner hit store shelves on DVD/Blu-ray on December 16 and features a whole host of extra features, including a few segments all about Dashner’s visit to the set and seeing his book come alive. If you haven’t bought the DVD already, head on over to our giveaway for your chance to win!

Additional reporting by Brook Wentz.