‘Maze Runner: The Death Cure’ will be released nearly a year after it was originally planned following Dylan O’Brien’s injuries on set.
The 24-year-old star of the movie was dragged under a vehicle in March whilst shooting scenes for the next instalment of the franchise and is still in recovery, which has prompted Fox to push back its scheduled release from February 2017 to January 2018.
Dylan’s accident took place in Vancouver, Canada, and his director Wes Ball initially reassured fans that the actor and his good friend would be "fine" to return to work after a few weeks of rest.
In a handwritten note shared on Twitter, he wrote: "It’s scary seeing your friend get hurt, but fortunately, Dylan is going to be just fine. After a few weeks of rest and recovery he’ll be back up and running to finish our adventure together."
However, the Dylan’s injuries – which were sustained when he fell from the roof of a moving vehicle that he was strapped to – are more serious than they anticipated and his publicist Jennifer Allen released a statement in April saying he needed "more time" to recover.
She said: "His injuries are very serious, and he needs more time to recover."
What’s more, Dylan has not made any posts on his Twitter account since March 14, prior to the accident, and a report from WorkSafeBC described his injuries as including a "concussion, facial fracture and lacerations."
A statement from movie studio Fox to the Hollywood Reporter confirmed production will resume "as soon as possible".
It read: "The resumption of principal photography on ‘Maze Runner: The Death Cure’ has been further delayed to allow Dylan O’Brien more time to fully recover from his injuries. We wish Dylan a speedy recovery and look forward to restarting production as soon as possible."
There has been no news on Dylan’s recovery since however, he was rumoured to be in talks to star in ‘American Assassin’.
And Fox has been forced to shuffle around a number of other movies to accommodate the delay in ‘Maze Runner: The Death Cure’.
‘Predator’ will be released earlier than expected – from March 2, 2018 to February 9, 2018 – and ‘Keeping Up With The Joneses’ starring Gal Gadot, Isla Fisher, Jon Hamm and Zach Galifianakis will now be released on October 21, 2016.