First Clip For Maze Runner: The Scorch Trails Ups The Ante

Just as the credits were ready to roll on The Maze Runner, Dylan O’Brien’s teenage protagonist Thomas has believed that he and his fellow Gladers had lucked out and brought an end to their literal trials and tribulations. But as the first clip for Maze Runner: Scorch Trials attests, the struggle is really only beginning.

Starring Game of Thrones‘ Aidan Gillen – channeling his devious Littlefinger from HBO’s series – as Assistant Director Janson, the footage sees O’Brien’s protagonist taken into custody as the enigmatic WCKD organization rolls out the second phase of their testing. Mind you, despite Janson’s amicable front, as the full-length trailers have shown, it isn’t long before our group of survivors opt to escape from the confinements of the facility and take their chances with the arid, equatorial wasteland.

Director Wes Ball returns to helm the sequel, which will be lifted from James Dashner’s The Scorch Trials novel. And though there will be one YA adaptation dominating the box office later this year in the form of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, 20th Century Fox is aiming to really establish the universe with September’s sequel. Now that plans are in place for a third film – The Death Cure, which won’t be split into two parts – the studio will no doubt be holding out hope for a strong box office return much like its predecessor.

O’Brien and Gillen are joined by Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter, Patricia Clarkson, Rosa Salazar, Aidan Gillen, Ki Hong Lee and Giancarlo Esposito.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials will make a dash for theaters on September 18. For now, you can get the lowdown on the sequel’s story via the official synopsis below.

Thomas (O’Brien) and his fellow Gladers face their greatest challenge yet: searching for clues about the mysterious and powerful organization known as W.C.K.D. Their journey takes them to the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with unimaginable obstacles. Teaming up with resistance fighters, the Gladers take on W.C.K.D.’s vastly superior forces and find out they are being used as one big experiment.