Last week, we reported that the third Maze Runner movie The Death Cure is in development, but later this year, fans will return to this dystopian world created by author James Dashner in The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. Entertainment Weekly has the first three photos from this follow-up to last year's The Maze Runner, which feature Gladers Thomas (Dylan O'Brien), Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and Minho (Ki Hong Lee) back in action.

The sequel picks up right where The Maze Runner left off, after this group has escaped the perilous maze, although they find a whole new set of challenges ahead of them. The sequel begins with the group realizing that they were put through this maze by the nefarious corporation WCKD to train young survivors after solar flares destroyed the planet. Here's what producer Wyck Godfrey had to say about the sequel.

"The first movie was the mystery of 'Where are we and what is this place? And can we get out?' But the second movie is about the repercussions of getting out and the discovery of what the world is actually like."

Wes Ball, who made his directorial debut with The Maze Runner and returns for this year's The Scorch Trials, adds more details about this new world.

"It has transformed the world into a desert with sand dunes that crawl and are swallowing the ruins of a lost world."

Throughout Thomas and his group's journey, they come across a number of "infected" humans known as Cranks, who director Wes Ball says aren't exactly zombies, but they have similar qualities.

"We don't want to call them zombies, but they fit into that category. They're not undead, but they are rage-filled."

In the second image you can see below, Thomas, Teresa, Newt and Minho are seen hanging from their feet, with Wes Ball adding that there are a number of hostile non-Crank enemies the group will face as well.

"Our group runs into a lot of people out in the Scorch. Some are friends, some are foes. In this case, they've stumbled onto the latter."