Dylan O’Brien on conquering his demons to film Maze Runner: The Death Cure after 11 months recovering from on-set injury
Franchise star of young-adult series still won’t talk about injury on set that brought filming to a halt, but having found it ‘difficult, even putting the clothes back on’ when shoot resumed, he is proud he was able to complete the film
For Dylan O’Brien, Maze Runner: The Death Cure is much more than the third and final film in a popular young-adult film series.
Even finishing Death Cure is a triumph for the cast, crew and franchise star O’Brien, 26, who was injured in March 2016 when a set stunt went grievously wrong. His head injuries were serious enough to require the rare move of shutting down production after just three days of filming.
Film review – Maze Runner: The Death Cure offers bellowing conclusion to young adult trilogy
Eleven months later, after dealing with trauma and fear that made him question if he’d ever fully recover, O’Brien walked onto the Death Cure set to complete his movie.
“It does flood me with this prideful kind of feeling, like I conquered something. It just feels so right,” says O’Brien. “I would never have been OK with how we left off. This is how I would have felt best, actually finishing it.”
O’Brien, who still has difficulty discussing the injury and its trying aftermath, explains that the ordeal threatened to overtake his overwhelmingly positive Maze Runner life – two previous career-changing films that attracted an audience beyond the passionate fan base for James Dashner’s novels about a dystopian future.