Is Dylan O'Brien Popular for Teen Wolf or Maze Runner?
The Hollywood heartthrob is still insanely popular with teenagers, even though his breakout MTV show ended years ago.
Dylan O'Brien burst into the limelight when the hit supernatural series Teen Wolf premiered on MTV in 2011. Surprisingly, O'Brien was not the show's main character. He played teenage werewolf Scott McCall's best friend Stiles, a perfectly normal guy with a penchant for solving mysteries.
Despite this, O'Brien became the true star of the series, earning rave reviews from fans and critics alike for his performance as the gifted kid. Hollywood producers instantly spotted the actor, and he was soon cast as the protagonist in the huge dystopian youth franchise Maze Runner.
With 6 seasons of Teen Wolf and three Maze Runner movies under his belt, O'Brien has certainly impressed audiences, but was it Teen Wolf or Maze Runner that has made him a real star?
That's a tough question to answer, however, fans have offered up some interesting ideas over on Reddit. For one, the general consensus is that true stardom comes from big Hollywood feature films, so if O'Brian had not turned down Maze Runner, his career might have been over and done with by now.
He did accept it, appearing in three Maze Runner movies that have grossed over a billion dollars at the box office. Not bad for a rising star, is it? However, it seems like the producers were somewhat disappointed with Maze Runner's box office and cancelled the franchise after three instalments. The cancellation didn't impact O'Brian negatively, though, as after the three movies he was already crazy popular and new offers kept pouring in.
The young star appeared in Deepwater Horizon alongside Mark Wahlberg and in American Assassin alongside Michael Keaton. Both movies bombed at the box office, somewhat undermining O'Brian's chances of becoming a true household name.
In the past four years, we've seen very little of O'Brian, who has only appeared in a handful of films and TV series. And yet, he still remains popular. Fans believe his popularity endures not because of the nearly universally forgotten Maze Runner but because of Teen Wolf, which has a loyal following who keep rewatching it. It was no coincidence that when Teen Wolf: The Movie was announced, fans were furious after they learned that O'Brian would not be reprising his iconic role for the movie.