Summary
Dylan O’Brienhad a near-death experience while working onMaze Runner:The Death Curethat almost ended his acting career. O’Brien first burst onto the scene with the starring role of Stiles Stilinski inTeen Wolf, a TV adaptation of the 1985 movie. He took advantage of the YA boom happening at the time and quickly parlayed hisTeen Wolfstardom into a leading performance intheMaze Runnerfranchise. These two roles kept O’Brien busy between 2011 and 2018 when the finalMaze Runnermovie premiered, but by then, most audiences had gotten over the glut of YA adaptations.
So it was more like 2015-2016 whenO’Brien seemingly disappeared from the heights of Hollywood fame. It was a sudden and surprising exit from the spotlight, considering just how naturally talented he is. The actor managed to lead two major franchises at the same time and did so exceptionally. O’Brien brought an authentic, grounded acting style to his characters unique from similar YA movies and supernatural TV series. If someone wasn’t looking for the actor, they may think he left Hollywood altogether, but that’s far from the truth.
10 Best Action Scenes In The Maze Runner Movies, Ranked
The Maze Runner film series has no shortage of thrilling action scenes, but a few stand out and emphasize what makes the series engaging and beloved.
Dylan O’Brien Suffered A Severe Injury Performing A Stunt On The Maze Runner: The Death Cure Set
O’Brien Nearly Quit Acting After His Injury
While filming the third film in theMaze Runnerfranchise,Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Dylan O’Brien suffered a severe injury that was only inches away from possibly ending his life. In a car stunt gone wrong,O’Brien was pulled from one vehicle and was reportedly struck by another. The accident resulted in a concussion, facial fracture, and brain trauma, among other injuries. Production shut down indefinitely while O’Brien withdrew during his recovery. He toldVultureabout that traumatic period of his life:
“I really was in a dark place there for a while and it wasn’t an easy journey back. There was a time there where I didn’t know if I would ever do it again … and that thought scared me, too.”
Even thinking about it years later, O’Brien can’t quite reconcile that time,
“In a lot of ways, those six months went by like that. And then, in a lot of ways, I can still remember that six months as if it was five years of my life.”
While the physical road to recovery was daunting, the mental road was just as difficult. O’Brien wasconstantly second-guessing himself during his recovery, wondering if he would ever be able to work on a set again. But despite everything he’d been through, O’Brien committed himself to the 2017 movieAmerican Assassin, and thanks to the training and his action coordinator, Roger Yuan, said,
“Sometimes I’d literally show up at the gym having a panic attack, and my trainer [Roger Yuan] would be like, ‘All right, let’s just go get breakfast’. I can’t give enough credit to him … he was really there for me, and not just like a trainer where it’s like, ‘Well, come on, man, I gotta pump you up.’ He cared more about my mind and the state that I was in.”
Through his intense training and support from Yuan and O’Brien’s family, O’Brien made it to London to film the action movie. Since then, he’s looked back at his recovery as a turning point in his life,
“Coming out of the other side of all this is basically a whole new chapter, and I think I will be going about it differently. I’m excited to have more balance going forward. Like, I’m not somebody I don’t think who’s going to do three or four movies a year and feel like I have to constantly pump them out. I think there’s something to be said about pacing yourself.”
O’Brien had a jam-packed career right from the start. Downshifting into a zone he’s comfortable in is not only a healthy decision but one that’sensured the actor has gotten to continue working consistently.
Dylan O’Brien returned to finish shooting forMaze Runner: The Death Curein 2017 and the film was released in 2018.
O’Brien Has Collaborated With Taylor Swift & Will Play Dan Aykroyd In SNL 1975
O’Brien Has Quietly Been Rebuilding His Career
Dylan O’Brien has had a surprisingly impressive career, considering the lows he was feeling in 2016. He may not have the same flashy one-two punch ofTeen WolfandMaze Runner, but he’s still consistently appeared in some great films and TV shows. Most notably, he starred in thewildly underrated monster movie,Love and Monsters, which finds Joel (O’Brien) trying to survive a post-apocalyptic landscape where giant invertebrates hunt the remaining humans.
Love and Monsters(2020)
Ponyboi(2024)
Vinny
He’s also hitched himself to Taylor Swift, appearing in her 2021 short film,All Too Well, opposite Sadie Sink, and credited as the drummer on “Snow on the Beach” from Swift’s album,Midnights. He’s set to appear in director Jason Reitman’s 2024 biographical comedySNL 1975as Dan Aykroyd, starring alongside Hollywood’s young “it crowd” including Rachel Sennott, Gabriel LaBelle, and Cooper Hoffman. It doesn’t matter if O’Brien ever gets his early career-type roles, because he seems to be content with his current trajectory, and he could soon enter a different but equally impressive next stage of his career.
The Maze Runner
Conceived as a book series by author James Dashner, The Maze Runner is a sci-fi multimedia franchise that gained mainstream popularity after the release of its first of three films. The series focuses on a group of young men trapped in a maze with no knowledge of life outside their strange prison. The survivors, led by protagonist Thomas, attempt to piece together their shattered memories and find a way out of the towering maze.
