As the release date for "Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials" draws neared, fans and followers of the franchise are now getting increasingly excited over the upcoming project. With the majority of the actors reprising their roles in the sci-fi flick, Dylan O'Brien, who plays the lead male role named Thomas," discusses the intriguing love story featured in "Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials."
While romantic stories typically require a sweet and quirky set up for the actors to fall in love and achieve their happily ever after, "Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials" offers a tale that is founded on the necessity to survive and independence. With that said, it becomes quite challenging to weave a romantic story with the characters dying or killing one another in almost every scene. Although the creators and writers of "Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials" are aware of the difficulty, the feat is considered possible nonetheless.
Pivotal to the love story of O'Brien's character and Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) in "Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials" is the scene where the former rejects the advances of another girl, named Brenda (Rosa Salazar), and tells her one hurtful line: "You're not her."
Presumably telling Brenda that she can never replace Teresa, who at this point of the story is no longer with the group but abducted and placed elsewhere in the mountains, Thomas makes it very clear to whom his heart truly belongs.
"In this one, it's not a love triangle and everything I love about this story line is that it's sort of so unromantic and that's what makes it so romantic," O'Brien explained, referring to the outward rejection of Thomas of Brenda's advances in "Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials." He added, "There really is no romance going on. There's kind of just something there, connections there for the audience to root for and I think that's stronger without just throwing it in your face."
He went on to say, "I always like to cultivate that stuff myself as a viewer, you know, like I want [people to be like] 'Oh! They're amazing together.'" In "Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials," Thomas and Teresa are separated from each other due to unforeseen events but their "connection" remained strong.
"In the first one, Thomas and Teresa, what I love about their relationship is that it's a connection," revealed O'Brien, referring to the first film in the franchise, titled "Maze Runner." He went on to explain, "It's familiar in a world that's completely unfamiliar to these kids. Literally just being like rebirthed essentially. They to one another are the one piece of memory that they have and it makes me feel safe, and I think that's beautiful." With regard his relationship with the female lead and his love interest, he said, "It's not necessarily like stop and kissing in the woods, that never happens, and that's what I love too, it's so authentic."