Book · in order

Maze Runner Books in Order

By the Bingerun team · How we choose the order →

Nineteen entries: eight novels, the Crank Palace novella, four companion pieces, three films, two mobile tie-ins and one untitled film in development. Read in publication order starting with The Maze Runner (2009), because both prequels give away exactly what book one spends its length hiding.

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This order covers 11 of 19 entries, and intentionally skips the rest.

  1. The Maze Runner 2009

    Published October 6, 2009 by Delacorte Press. Book one and the only correct starting point: every other entry in the franchise is calibrated to a reader who does not yet know what the Maze is or who built it.

  2. The Scorch Trials 2010

    September 18, 2010, Delacorte Press. WICKED sends the Gladers across the Scorch on a two week deadline, with neck tattoos assigning each of them a role. Almost none of this survives into the film of the same name.

  3. The Death Cure 2011

    October 11, 2011, Delacorte Press. The end of Thomas's story. Everything published after this is a prequel, a parallel novella, an in-universe companion or a sequel set 73 years later, which is why the series looks so confusing from the outside.

  4. NovellaCrank Palace 2020

    Novella first released August 25, 2020 as an audiobook and November 23, 2020 in print, from Riverdale Avenue Books and its Quest imprint rather than Delacorte, then reissued by Akashic Media Enterprises in trade paperback on October 21, 2022. A later Akashic ISBN pushes a 2023 date into some catalogues, but it is the same novella every time. It runs parallel to the back half of The Death Cure and follows Newt after he leaves the Berg, so read it immediately after The Death Cure and never before.

  5. BonusThomas's First Memory of the Flare 2011

    A short bonus piece that Goodreads files as series entry 2.5 and dates to 2011, covering Thomas's earliest memory of the Flare outbreak. It is not on the publisher's series page and library catalogues have no record of it, so treat it as a curiosity rather than a missing chapter. If you want it in place, it reads as a flashback between The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure.

  6. PrequelThe Kill Order 2012

    August 14, 2012, Delacorte Press. Prequel set 13 years before book one with a separate cast (Mark, Trina, Alec) and no Gladers, so it reads nearly standalone until the epilogues: one shows WICKED taking a boy named Stephen and renaming him Thomas, the other reveals that Deedee, the five year old the survivors protect all book, is Teresa. Its prologue also sits moments before The Maze Runner, as Thomas takes the Swipe and enters the Box.

  7. CompanionThe Maze Runner Files 2013

    Ebook companion from Delacorte, roughly 50 pages of in-universe WICKED memos, emails and suppressed memories rather than a story. Dates disagree: Wikipedia gives January 1, 2013 for the ebook while retailers commonly list August 13, 2013. It spans the whole timeline and has no fixed slot, so park it after The Death Cure or skip it.

  8. PrequelThe Fever Code 2016

    September 27, 2016, Delacorte Press. The second prequel and chronologically the last thing before book one, ending with Thomas waking in the Box. It names the Creators, explains why the Maze was built and shows Thomas helping to build it, which makes it the single most spoiler-dense book in the franchise. Never read it first.

  9. The Maze Cutter 2022

    First book of the sequel trilogy, published by Akashic Media Enterprises and set 73 years after The Death Cure with a new cast of islanders. The year is solid, the day is not: Akashic's own page says November 15, 2022, Wikipedia gives October 4, 2022 internationally and November 1, 2022 in North America, and other listings pick one of the three. Retailers label it "Maze Runner, 6", but it is not a Thomas story.

  10. The Godhead Complex 2023

    November 14, 2023, Akashic Media Enterprises. Book two of the Maze Cutter trilogy: the islanders travel toward Alaska in search of the Godhead.

  11. The Infinite Glade 2025

    September 9, 2025, Akashic Media Enterprises. Book three of the Maze Cutter trilogy, billed as the conclusion of the whole saga, and currently the last published entry in the franchise. Ignore the April 2025 date in circulation: the Wikipedia series table says April while its own prose, Kirkus and Goodreads all give September 9.

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Why this order?

Read the Maze Runner books in the order James Dashner published them, and do not let anyone talk you into starting with the prequels. The trilogy is a mystery box. The Maze Runner (October 6, 2009) drops Thomas into a walled Glade with no memory and no explanation, The Scorch Trials (September 18, 2010) pushes the survivors across a burned continent on a WICKED deadline, and The Death Cure (October 11, 2011) finally says who built the Maze and why. Every book published afterwards is written for a reader who has already been through that.

The two prequels are where order guides go wrong. The Kill Order (August 14, 2012) is set 13 years earlier with an entirely separate cast, Mark, Trina and Alec, and no Gladers at all, so it reads almost standalone until its epilogues hand you two reveals at once: a boy named Stephen is taken by WICKED and renamed Thomas, and Deedee, the five year old the survivors spend the whole book protecting, is Teresa. It also opens with a prologue set moments before book one, as Thomas takes the Swipe and goes into the Box. The Fever Code (September 27, 2016) is worse for a newcomer because it is an answer key: it names the Creators, explains why the Maze exists, shows Thomas helping to build it, and ends on him waking up in the Box. A strict in-universe chronology therefore opens with the two books that dismantle the mystery of the one you have not read yet. That order is a reread order. Save it for the second pass, when watching the trap close is the whole point.

After the trilogy the series stops being tidy, and the reason is a publisher change. Delacorte Press, part of Penguin Random House, published books one through five and the ebook companion The Maze Runner Files. Penguin Random House ended its relationship with Dashner in February 2018 following misconduct allegations, and everything since has come from elsewhere: Riverdale Avenue Books and its Quest imprint for Crank Palace in 2020, then Akashic Media Enterprises for the 2022 reissue and for the entire Maze Cutter trilogy. Because the Penguin Random House and Chicken House series pages both stop at five books, aggregators routinely publish a complete series list with four titles missing. Crank Palace is a novella running parallel to the back half of The Death Cure that follows Newt after he leaves the Berg, so read it straight after The Death Cure and never before. The Maze Cutter (2022), The Godhead Complex (November 14, 2023) and The Infinite Glade (September 9, 2025) jump 73 years forward with a new cast of islanders and close the saga out, and they sit in the same position in every order.

On screen the decision is much smaller, because only the original trilogy was filmed. The Maze Runner (September 19, 2014), Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (September 18, 2015) and Maze Runner: The Death Cure (January 26, 2018) run in release order, which is also story order, with nothing to reshuffle. Two things still catch people. The third film is 2018, not the 2017 date still printed on plenty of lists: it was set for February 17, 2017, postponed after Dylan O'Brien was injured on set in March 2016, rescheduled to January 12, 2018, delayed to February 9, 2018, then pulled forward two weeks. And the second film is not the second book. The movie throws out the novel's premise, so treat the two versions as separate continuities rather than one story told twice. The only real placement choice on the film side is the pair of BOOM! Studios graphic novel preludes, which bridge film one to film two and film two to film three, and which are film canon only.

Timeline 2009-2025

Every entry by release year: rows that share a year are a cluster, and the long droughts are called out on the rail.

  1. 2009 The Maze Runner
  2. 2010 The Scorch Trials
  3. 2011 The Death CureThomas's First Memory of the Flare
  4. 2012 The Kill Order
  5. 2013 Files
  6. 2014 (film)(mobile game)
  7. 2015 Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials - The Official Gโ€ฆMaze Runner: The Scorch TrialsMaze Runner: The Scorch Trials (mobile game)
  8. 2016 The Fever Code
  9. 2017 Maze Runner: The Death Cure - The Official Grapโ€ฆ
  10. 2018 Maze Runner: The Death Cure
  11. 2020 Crank Palace
  12. 2022 The Maze Cutter
  13. 2023 The Godhead Complex
  14. 2025 The Infinite Glade

Upcoming / TBA: Untitled Maze Runner film

Where to play it today

  • The original trilogy and both prequels are widely in print from Delacorte Press in paperback, ebook and audiobook, and are the easy part of the series to find
  • Crank Palace and the three Maze Cutter books come from different publishers (Riverdale Avenue Books, then Akashic Media Enterprises), so shops that stock the trilogy often do not shelve them; searching by title or ISBN beats browsing the series shelf
  • The Maze Runner Files is ebook only and drifts in and out of retailer catalogues
  • The two BOOM! Studios preludes are easiest to find as collected editions or on digital comics stores; single issues are long out of print
  • A library card through Libby or Hoopla usually covers the trilogy and both prequels at no cost, though the newer Akashic titles are stocked less often
  • The three films rotate between subscription streaming, rental and purchase, and the mix differs by country; check JustWatch for your region rather than trusting any fixed list
  • The two mobile tie-in games have vanished from the app stores in most regions, and nothing in the story depends on them

Availability changes often and varies by region - links search each platform for The Maze Runner.

Frequently asked questions

How many Maze Runner books and movies are there?

Nineteen entries in total: eight novels (the original trilogy, the two prequels and the three Maze Cutter sequels), the Crank Palace novella, a short bonus story, the ebook companion The Maze Runner Files, two BOOM! Studios graphic novel preludes, three films, two mobile tie-in games and one untitled film in development. If you count only James Dashner's prose it is nine books; if you count only films it is three.

What order should I read the Maze Runner books in?

Publication order, with one small change. The Maze Runner (2009), The Scorch Trials (2010), The Death Cure (2011), then Crank Palace, then the prequels The Kill Order (2012) and The Fever Code (2016), then the sequel trilogy: The Maze Cutter (2022), The Godhead Complex (2023) and The Infinite Glade (2025). The only change from strict publication order is pulling Crank Palace up from 2020 to sit right after The Death Cure, because it runs alongside that book's back half. The Maze Runner Files can go anywhere after The Death Cure, or be skipped.

Should I read The Kill Order and The Fever Code first?

No, not on a first read. The Fever Code names the Creators, explains why the Maze exists, shows Thomas helping to build it and ends with him waking up in the Box, so reading it first leaves book one with no mystery to solve. The Kill Order is milder for most of its length but its epilogues reveal Thomas's birth name and that Deedee, the child the cast protects all book, is Teresa. Read both after The Death Cure. In-universe chronological order is a genuinely good reread order and a bad first-read order.

Where does Crank Palace fit in the Maze Runner series?

It runs parallel to the back half of The Death Cure, following Newt after he leaves the Berg, so a strict chronological read would interrupt book three partway through. The practical answer is to read it immediately after finishing The Death Cure. Do not read it earlier, because it only lands if you know where Newt's story is heading. It is also the title most often missing from series lists, since it was the first Maze Runner book published outside Random House: Riverdale Avenue Books and its Quest imprint in 2020, then Akashic Media Enterprises from 2022.

Is The Maze Cutter part of the Maze Runner series?

Yes. It is a direct sequel trilogy set 73 years after The Death Cure with a new cast of islanders: The Maze Cutter (2022), The Godhead Complex (November 14, 2023) and The Infinite Glade (September 9, 2025), all from Akashic Media Enterprises. Retailers number the first one as Maze Runner book 6. It is not a Thomas story, and because Penguin Random House and Chicken House series pages both stop at five books, plenty of order lists leave the whole trilogy off.

How many Maze Runner movies are there and in what order?

Three, and they go in release order: The Maze Runner (September 19, 2014), Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (September 18, 2015) and Maze Runner: The Death Cure (January 26, 2018). Release order and story order are identical, so there is no decision to make about the films themselves. Neither prequel novel was ever adapted. The only optional extras are the two BOOM! Studios graphic novel preludes, which bridge the first film to the second and the second to the third.

Is the Maze Runner Death Cure movie 2017 or 2018?

2018. It opened January 26, 2018. The 2017 you see on some listings is a date that was abandoned: the film was first set for February 17, 2017, then postponed after Dylan O'Brien was hospitalised with on-set injuries in March 2016, rescheduled to January 12, 2018, delayed again to February 9, 2018 for post-production, then moved forward two weeks to January 26. The real gap between the second and third films is about two years and four months.

Is the Scorch Trials movie the same as the book?

No, and it is the biggest book-to-film split in the franchise. The novel puts the Gladers through a WICKED-imposed two week deadline to cross the Scorch, gives them neck tattoos assigning each of them a role, and has Group B capture Thomas. The film drops all of that and tells a different story under the same title. If you have read the novel, go in expecting a different plot rather than a shortened one, and do not use the movies to catch up on the books.

Do I need to read The Maze Runner Files?

No. It is roughly 50 pages of in-universe WICKED documents, memos, emails and suppressed memories rather than a narrative, and nothing in the novels depends on it. If you want it, read it after The Death Cure, when the documents actually mean something. Its date is muddled too: Wikipedia lists the ebook as January 1, 2013 while retailers commonly show August 13, 2013.

When is the new Maze Runner movie coming out?

There is no date. A new film was announced in May 2024 at 20th Century Studios with Wes Ball producing rather than directing, Jack Paglen writing, and the original Gotham Group and Temple Hill producers returning, described as neither a remake nor a direct sequel but a continuation with new characters. As of August 2026 there is still no director, no cast, no confirmed production start and no release date, so any date circulating for it is speculation.

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Last verified · Sources: en.wikipedia.org, kirkusreviews.com, goodreads.com, openlibrary.org

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