Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly Talk The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Set in the world of The Maze Runner film franchise, BOOM! Studios is rolling out a new, original graphic novel from writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly.

In it, five short stories from a variety of artists tackle various aspects of the universe.

Lanzing and Kelly joined ComicBook.com to talk about the project.

First of all, obviously you’ve got a cinematic universe that’s based on a book series. Is there a specific reason — be it creative or legal — that you wanted to specifically explore the world of the film instead?

Jackson Lanzing: The simple answer is that we didn’t really have a choice – the book was produced by Fox and BOOM! Studios as a tie-in to the film series, full stop. The challenge in front of us was clear: Introduce new elements that will be explored in the film, many of which have basis in the books.

However, from a creative level, it’s freeing to know that while James gave his blessing to each story, we were never going to be at risk of violating his canon. It really let us dig into the aspects of the story that most interested us, allowing us to feel a little less like guests in another creator’s universe and more like creators ourselves.

That kind of freedom obviously provides superior stories – and ones that will hopefully challenge fans of the books to consider new notions and ideas alongside their familiar continuity.

That said, there are almost always changes made to suit format. Does this comic give you a chance to play into some of the alterations and kind of “prep” readers for whatever differences might exist between the world onscreen and the one they think they know?

Collin Kelly: Our concern wasn’t as much with helping fans of the book adjust to the world of the movie, but rather helping fans of the movie adjust to the world of the book. There is so much creativity poured into the books, so many wild ideas, we drew from that well whenever possible. Of course, there are some corners of the mythos that the books skirt altogether – and there, it was a joy to match Dashner’s creativity with some of our own.

How involved were you in putting together the creative team for the particular stories, and deciding what artists go where?

Lanzing: The brilliance of hiring these particular artists all came from our editor, the incomparable Dafna Pleban. We had no input on that at all. That said, we couldn’t be happier with the selections. I’m a huge fan of Andrea Mutti on Rebels, and he brought an incredible darkness to our survival story Scorched. Tom Derenick really stepped up to some interesting format challenges and a very science-heavy story in World Gone Wicked. And Nick Robles created an entirely new maze to explore in The True Maze, along with a terrifying new monster never-before-seen in the novels or films.

Can those who haven’t seen the first film pick up this graphic novel and come out of it ready for the next movie?

Kelly: At the risk of spoilers for those who haven’t read the books, let’s say this: the world of The Scorch Trials is about as far from the Maze as you can get. It’s filled with new threats, new characters and new alliances – introducing those elements was our mission statement. However, with the addition of My Friend George, written by Wes Ball and T.S. Nowlin, as well as our collaboration on Run Alone, we were able to give the new fan at least a look into the world of the first film.

Who are the key players in these five tales?

Lanzing: Let’s run it down.

Our first story, “Run Alone,” with art by our brother-from-another-country Marcus To, is all about everyone’s favorite runner Minho as he takes on a new apprentice named Ben. Those who’ve seen the first film know how that turns out – but we get a chance to show the budding hope of this friendship and start Minho on the path towards his friendship with Thomas.

The second story, “My Friend George,” by Wes Ball, T.S. Nowlin, and Marcus To, follows Alby and George – the first two boys in the Maze. It’s tragic and poetic – and helps inform where Alby begins in the first film.

Our third story, “The True Maze,” with art by Nick Robles, follows a character fans will meet in The Scorch Trials: Aris, the only boy in Group B. The Maze we saw in The Maze Runner is not the only one – and this story lets us see a very different kind of society (for instance, one made entirely of girls). You’ll also meet Rachel, a brave leader with a very dark future.

The fourth story, “Scorched,” with art by Andrea Mutti, is a brutal look at surviving in the post-apocalyptic Scorch. We see it all through Jorge, an adult scavenger who picks up a young woman named Brenda. It’s got shades of Lone Wolf and Cub – and helps establish a friendship you’ll see play out in Scorch Trials.

The last story is also, chronologically, the first. It’s called “World Gone Wicked,” with art by Tom Derenick, and it’s an exploration of exactly how the world got to the state we find in Scorch Trials. It begins decades before Maze Runner and takes us right up to the beginning of the first film – all through the perspective of the two women at the top of the governmental efforts to save the world: Ava Paige and Dr. Mary Cooper.

Keep an eye out for cameos from a few other fan favorites in that story.

Anytime there’s a prequel story, there’s always an iteration of this question: How do you keep the stakes high? Characters the readers don’t know can seem unimportant or irrelevant, whereas characters the audience DOES know…well, we know in many cases where they’ll end up at the end of the story.

Kelly: How do we keep the stakes high? Emotionality. If these stories were just explosion dumps, we never would have signed on. In each story we had an incredibly small amount of space to make you fall in love with someone, and then to break your heart. For many of these characters – yes, a fan with foreknowledge can predict their destiny. Knowing someone will die however doesn’t mean you don’t care about them, it means that their life is all the more poignant – filling that heretofore unexamined life with just a bit of humanity makes its end matter all the more.

Lanzing: For every story we write – in any medium – our test is this: if we can drop all the genre elements, is there still a story we could play out on a stage? If there is, then no character becomes unimportant or irrelevant – because no person with wants, needs, and dreams is unimportant or irrelevant.

What was the process like? At what point did the decision become to make a series of short stories instead of one big, interconnected tale that would touch on a number of plots?

Lanzing: Well before we arrived on the scene, the plan was to structure this as a series of short stories.

That was the task before us before we even pitched. We were given access to the script for the second film and had carte blanche to write what we found interesting – though there were certain aspects the studio and filmmakers were eager to showcase (like Group B, for instance, which was the story that convinced me we needed to tell this). From there, we had very little time to produce scripts – so we got straight to work. A few conversations with BOOM! and one studio approval later, we were done.

How’s prep for something with this many eyeballs on it and a hardcore fan base different from creating something relatively out of whole cloth with a project like Hacktivist?

Kelly: In terms of prep, it was honestly incredibly similar; all we can tell is a story that we love, and hope others love it too. But the thing to remember is that both have a hardcore base; it’s just that one base is made fans of dystopian young adult fiction…and the other base has elements that can dox your life and spread your personal data to the wind.

We don’t want to irritate anyone, but we also have to tell the stories that interest us. If that’s not always what folks want to hear…well, we’re on Twitter.

Do you have more of these in you? If the book sells like gangbusters, would you want to tell some more stories in this world after the film is out?

Lanzing: Never say never – but it would mean finding other aspects of this universe that remain unexplored and offer up room to really tell a story that excites us. We’ll see what they bring to the table for the third film and perhaps we’ll have an opportunity to run the maze once again.

Kelly: The world of The Maze Runner is fun, weird, dangerous and cool – but the only ones who can really determine if more gets to happen are the fans.

What’s the biggest takeaway you’d like our readers to have going into the book’s release?

Lanzing: Fans of the books will find in these pages some answers and explorations that the books and films only touched upon. We are dedicated to getting deep into the mythology and teasing out the whys and wherefores of things like WCKD, the Mazes, the Flare, and the Scorch. But new readers will also find characters that live inside this incredibly strange world – and have become very interesting people in the process of adapting to it.

Kelly: Here’s the thing about the universe of Maze Runner; throughout all four books, and throughout all the movies, we’re only following one story. But this is a world – it’s our world, and it’s gone to Hell.

These stories are tales of survivors, of sisters and brothers and friends, all struggling to survive in a world that is literally dying around them. While no one can discount how important Thomas is to the world, all around him are characters who don’t serve a grand destiny, and who can be killed in a moment’s notice, just like everyone they knew before The Flare. By following their stories, we’re able to show you the true motivations of this world, explaining elements that fans have been hungry to discover while telling stories about people that matter, at least to themselves. Don’t look at this as a Scorch Trials prequel – look at this as the five-part history of how our world died.

Editor’s Note: In the first draft of this story, Collin Kelly was misidentified as Kyle Kelly. We regret the error.