We’ve got a few interesting casting stories to attend to this afternoon.  Briefly:

  • Game of Thrones actor Aidan Gillen (aka Littlefinger) has landed the Big Bad role in the next YA franchise, signing on to play the antagonist in the Maze Runner sequel The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials.
  • John Slattery is the latest familiar face to join the cast of Seth MacFarlane’s now-filming comedy sequel Ted 2.
  • Guy Pearce and Dominic West (The Wire) have joined the fantastic ensemble cast for the literary drama Genius, playing a couple of legendary novelists.

More on the aforementioned casting after the jump.

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20th Century Fox is moving incredibly quickly on a sequel to the YA adaptation The Maze Runner after it opened to solid box office last weekend, already setting The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials for release next September.  THR reports that Game of Thrones and The Wire alum Aidan Gillen has been tapped to play the villainous Janson aka Rat-Man in the sequel, which is set to begin production next month.  Director Wes Ball and star Dylan O’Brien return for the follow-up, which finds the surviving teens on the run in the Earthly wasteland that has been ravaged by solar flares.

Additionally, HitFix reports that Mad Men star John Slattery will appear in director Seth MacFarlane’s comedy sequel Ted 2Mark Wahlberg returns as the lead with Amanda Seyfried taking over as the female lead from Mila Kunis, and the cast also includes Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman.  However, given that MacFarlane’s films have proved to be quite extended-cameo-heavy, it’s likely that Slattery won’t have that large of a role—especially since production on the follow-up has been underway for a couple of months now.  The sequel opens in theaters June 26, 2015.

Finally, the cast of director Michael Grandage’s drama Genius has expanded by two.  Variety reports that Guy Pearce and Dominic West are joining Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Laura Linney in the story of the relationship between Thomas Wolf and editor Max Perkins.  Law and Firth star as Wolf and Perkins, respectively, and Pearce will play F. Scott Fitzgerald while West will play Ernest Hemingway.  John Logan penned the script and production begins next month in the U.K.

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