Do ‘Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials’ And ‘Star Wars’ Have In Common? 

What Do ‘Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials’ And ‘Star Wars’ Have In Common?

When Dylan O’Brien returns to the world of “Maze Runner,” he’ll be hitting the ground running — and he’ll be running in the direction of a galaxy far, far away.

Wes Ball, the director of the first “Maze Runner” movie as well as the upcoming sequel “Scorch Trials,” explains in a new interview with Empire Magazine how the next steps for Thomas, Teresa and the other Gladers are somewhat akin to “Star Wars.”

more: Dylan O’Brien Can’t Handle The Hotness In The First Pic From ‘The Scorch Trials’

“I saw it as the ‘Empire Strikes Back’ of this three-movie series,” he says, “and it’s that middle installment of that three story arc, especially the way it starts, because we’re thrown into the action and right where the last one left off with these kids in a helicopter and they go off to the next thing in a dramatic way. It’s exciting to just jump into this thing.”

With Thomas and his companions now out of the maze and out into the sun-scorched world, expect to see the “Maze Runner” universe expand in increasingly complicated ways.

“It’s definitely a cool world, kind of ravaged by the sun, so everything’s kind of burned and that’s why it’s called The Scorch,” says Ball. “But it’s also full of very hostile people, including creatures they have to meet up and deal with. What was kind of appealing to me was that it didn’t have to be a rehash of the first film, we got to go into a completely different look, a different kind of environment, and different threats altogether, but to still tell the story of these characters we fell in love with from the first movie.”

How else will “Scorch Trials” feel like a “Star Wars” movie? Maybe Thomas will lose his hand to a Griever, and find out that the creature is actually his father. Okay, probably not, but who knows? We won’t have to wait any longer than September 18 to find out for sure.

Likes pizza, punch and pie. Dislikes the Chitauri.