Watch The New ‘Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials’ Trailer

Last year, when Maze Runner was announced as Hollywood's latest YA novel-to-film adaptation, people were quick to deem it the next The Hunger Games. All the makings seemed to be there—it had violence, an intense battle for survival, a dystopian setting, and a potential romance between two genetically blessed individuals. And while it performed quite well at the box office, generating nearly triple its estimated budget, it never quite made it to Hunger Games proportions. Still, the second film had already started production by the time the first debuted, ensuring the series could produce two movies less than a year apart. 

This morning, the first trailer for the second chapter, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials was released. The film opens up exactly where the last left off—Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and the rest of those trapped in the labyrinth with him have been "rescued," having completed the Maze Trials. They then enter Phase 2, The Scorch. As they assimilate to this new environment, the group discovers that the mysterious W.C.K.D. organization is hiding a large secret. They escape out to the open, as the W.C.K.D. most likely intended, and enter yet another fight for survival.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials hits theaters September 18.