For starters: Beginning the trailer with Dylan O’Brien running, taking a tumble, and getting back up again was a bold move.

The Maze Runner: The Death Cure is pretty much doomed to be discussed and remembered as the film that nearly killed its star, after O’Brien got in an on-set accident that delayed production and almost took the young man’s life. Perhaps 20th Century Fox is trying to get out ahead of the narrative, framing what would otherwise be another late-phase franchise installment as a triumphant act of resilience and determination. Should that be the case, it’s kinda ghoulish to capitalize on a real person’s suffering like that for the sake of optics, but it’d probably work too, so who even knows.

Point is that O’Brien’s back in action and maze-running once again. He reprises the lead role of Thomas, a freedom fighter in the post-apocalyptic wasteland known as the Scorch. In this final chapter of the Running Through Mazes trilogy, Thomas rallies his allies for an infiltration mission at the evil WCKD (which is pronounced like “wicked” and is not, as I initially believed, a particularly sinister radio station) in the search for a fabled antidote to a rapidly spreading supervirus. Also in the mix are regular romantic opposite Kaya ScodelarioGame of Thrones’ Aidan Gillen, new addition to the cast Walton Goggins, and returning stalwart Giancarlo Esposito.

The Maze Runner: The Death Cure maze-runs into theaters on January 26, about a year after Fox has initially planned. Having said that: I’d like to apologize in advance for never not referring to this film as Maze Runner: A Cure for Deathness.

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