It’s been a difficult year for Dylan O’Brien. Back in March, the rising star suffered a serious injury while filming YA sequel The Maze Runner: The Death Cure, forcing production on an indefinite hiatus. We’re beginning to see signs of light at the end of the tunnel though, with filming due to recommence this February.
Wes Ball’s 2018 follow-up isn’t the only feature film to have been affected by O’Brien’s prolonged layoff; American Assassin, the geopolitical thriller hailing from director Michael Cuesta (Kill the Messenger) is also beginning to show signs of life. There’s no mention of a release date, but USA Today has premiered the next best thing: a batch of new stills showcasing Dylan O’Brien headlining a starry ensemble comprised of the Oscar-winning Michael Keaton, Taylor Kitsch, Sanaa Lathan and Shiva Negar as a Turkish agent and close ally to Mitch Rapp.
A post-grad student on the verge of proposing to his true love “before everything changes in his life drastically,” Dylan O’Brien is attached to the part of Mitch, who’s drafted in as a CIA black ops recruit under the watchful eye of a Cold War veteran (Michael Keaton) and the CIA Deputy Director, Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan).
“You always wonder who these people are, where they come from, how’d they get to what they’re doing,” O’Brien tells USA Today. “A lot of the time, there is a past and a tragic trail and a traumatic experience. It’s a really cool look into human nature.”
American Assassin is still without a release date – likely due to the domino effect from O’Brien’s injury – but we’ll update this article if and when Michael Cuesta and Co. settle on a specific window.
American Assassin follows the rise of Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien) a CIA black ops recruit under the instruction of Cold War veteran Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton). The pair is then enlisted by CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) to investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on both military and civilian targets. Together the three discover a pattern in the violence leading them to a joint mission with a lethal Turkish agent (Shiva Negar) to stop a mysterious operative (Taylor Kitsch) intent on starting a World War in the Middle East.
