Director Wes Ball more than met the challenge of bringing the bestselling book “The Maze Runner” to the big screen, delivering a film that was critically-acclaimed, action-packed and intense, and a global box-office hit, with ticket sales in excess of $340 illion.

With “The Maze Runner” still playing in theaters, he decamped to Albuquerque, New Mexico to start production on “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials.” Picking up on the story of Thomas and the Gladers now that they’ve escaped the maze, the film introduces audiences to The Scorch, and a whole new set of challenges faced in a post-apocalyptic Earth.

(READ: A scorching sequel: ‘The Maze Runner’s’ follow-up is bigger and scarier)

You’re already halfway through production and the first movie only just came out. How quick has the turnaround been for you?

It’s crazy. It’s nuts. I don’t feel like I left, really; it feels like we just jumped right into the next one. But it’s cool to keep the momentum going, and the cast is still fresh and in the mindset. It’s probably a good thing.

Do you start with more confidence, having watched the first film become a hit?

Not at all. [Laughs] Making movies is tough, period. I don’t feel like I learned anything new—I think and I hope that we’re all the same people. We’re just trying to put our heads down and focus and make the best movie we can. We might be a little more cautious, I guess, sometimes, knowing there are things I knew would work on the first one that didn’t work, and I had to wiggle my way out of those problems.

Maybe I cover myself a little better now. But that’s kind of it, you know. You still just see it in your mind and try and go achieve it, you know. It feels the same.

Where does Thomas go in this film?

The big question is: what do they do now that they’re out of the Glade?

For me, the story becomes: they’re out of the maze, but they’re still lost as a group of characters. It’s a cool concept to play with. They don’t know what they’re supposed to do now. It’s not about saving the world, you know, it’s about finding their way through it and what their existence means to the world. What’s fun now is we get to tell this saga, really…

There’s a good chance now that we’ll make the third one. We can really piece that stuff together now, and think about what’s coming next. We’re really trying to lay the groundwork for two more movies that tell one complete, linear story, all on the same trajectory as the first one that we set up. It’s really fun and really neat to build those story—and character—arcs.

Did you feel you needed to up the ante with the set pieces?

Definitely. There are these things called Cranks, which James Dashner created, which are basically zombies, but we’re trying to do something very, very different with them. We’re trying to make something a little more interesting. That’s kind of our movie monster this time.

I think this movie is going to be very fun and very, very different, visually and location-wise, and also emotionally. It’s going to be much deeper and hopefully more profound and mature. We’re trying really hard to up the ante on all those levels for the next two movies.

Why do you think there’s such a trend towards dystopian sci-fi?

It’s obviously been around for a while, but you know… It’s not anything we’re forcing upon people, it’s just something that people find interesting, and we’re delivering what they want to see right now. But I do think there’s something that resonates particularly with young people, about the world being kind of a precarious place right now.

Plus for me, personally— and it’s totally strange, and a little dark I guess—I find it quite romantic, the idea of starting over. Hitting the reset button and building a new world, essentially. That’s kind of where my mind is, and it was what I did with “Ruin,”, that little short I made a couple of years ago.

How have you found shooting in Albuquerque?

It’s good, but I had no idea it was going to be so damn cold. [Laughs] It’s full of awesome locations, and it gives us time to be really different visually. The last movie was all this Louisiana heat, and all the humidity, and the colors and the textures were all overgrown and concrete. Here we’re out in this vast expanse, full of clear skies and horizon lines. It gives a whole different perspective to the story that these characters are going through. It works out really well for us and it’s really cool.

Will you jump as quickly into the third film?

No. [Laughs] I don’t want to rush so much on the next one, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. There are certain timing things we just have to deal with, and it’s the logistics of things. We just kind of roll with it and make the best movie we can.

“Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” is now showing in Philippine cinemas nationwide from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.