The Maze Runner Casts Kaya Scodelario As Its Female Lead

By Brent McKnight | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Kaya Scodelario

James Dashner’s The Maze Runner is one in an ever increasing line of sci-fi themed young adult novels that are being adapted into big-time Hollywood movies. In hopes of replicating the massive success of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games, it seems like if there is mention of YA and science fiction anywhere near your book, you land a huge development deal.

Directed by Wes Ball, the film version of The Maze Runner has finally found its female lead in the form of Kaya Scodelario. British-born, the 21-year-old actress made her screen debut in Duncan Jones’ Moon, which she followed up with a turn in Clash of the Titans, but she’s still best known for her role on Skins.

Ball himself tweeted the news:



The Maze Runner
is the first book in a trilogy, because everything is a trilogy these days. Dystopian in nature, follows the story of Thomas, a young man who wakes up with no memory, in a large, enclosed area called the Glade. Like Thomas, none of the other kids in the Glade know who they are or why they’re there. All they know is that every morning the doors to a sprawling maze open up, every night they close, and every 30 days a new boy arrives. When a girl, Theresa—the first girl to ever enter the Glade—arrives, she delivers a surprising message.

Kids abandoned by the grown-up world, alone, fighting for survival…you can see why The Maze Runner would appeal to the producers at Fox.

MazeRunner