Quinn Cozens and Yui Kikuchi in Beyond the Lost Horizon

Who would play Quinn and Yui in Beyond the Lost?

ByTC Marti

Character casting is a fun exercise for upcoming books. So, in my Beyond the Lost trilogy, who’d make the ideal Quinn Cozens and Yui Kikuchi?

It’s a fair question, and a fun one. These two characters carry the emotional weight of the story, and casting them right would make or break any screen adaptation.

So let’s not dance around it. Here’s who’d be my dream cast in this epic survival thriller, which you can find more information about here. Oh, and I’m making these picks based purely on aesthetics – their politics be damned.

Quinn Cozens — Dylan O’Brien

Let’s be honest. If you know me, and by extension, Quinn, you already know why Dylan O’Brien is the perfect fit.

  • He’s rugged but relatable.

  • Charismatic but not polished.

  • And most of all, he can carry emotional weight without turning into a melodramatic sob machine.

From The Maze Runner to Love and Monsters, O’Brien mastered the disillusioned everyman turned reluctant leader.

That’s Quinn in a nutshell: A sports writer forced into survival mode, navigating grief, war, and the burden of unexpected responsibility. O’Brien brings intensity, sarcasm, and a quiet defiance that screams, “I didn’t ask for this, but I’ll burn the system down if I have to.”

It’s not about who’s trending, but who feels real. Dylan gets it.

Yui Kikuchi — Gyubin

Yes, Gyubin.

The K-pop soloist born in 2006 and the Gen Z powerhouse with the voice of an old soul. The moment I watched her live performances on YouTube and saw she was also a bit of a rocker with that guitar, I thought: There she is. That’s Yui.

  • Yui’s story arc, from pop star to watching her world crash around her, is about more than survival.

  • She begins as a symbol, and she ends as a human being.

  • Gyubin, still early in her career, embodies that same underdog energy: raw talent, limitless potential, and just enough vulnerability to make you believe she can go through hell.

Her vocals carry emotion far beyond her years, and her public persona, serious, poised, yet unmistakably Gen Z, mirrors Yui.

Also, let’s be real: If you told me I’d someday cast a brewing libertarian survivalist opposite a rising K-pop idol, I’d have laughed. But that’s what makes this casting perfect.

Yui and Quinn are opposites. They’re supposed to be. And that’s why it works.

Why this duo works in my ‘character casting’

There’s something electric about the thought of Dylan O’Brien and Gyubin sharing the screen:

  • A gritty, sarcastic sports journalist with Norse Paganism and libertarian instincts running through him

  • …and a soft-spoken, world-famous idol trying to find her voice in a fallen world.

It’s oil and water. Fire and ice. And just about every other opposite you can think of. And it’s what makes this book so damn tense.

Let me hear your picks

So what do you think?

Do Dylan and Gyubin fit the roles? Or do you have other actors or idols in mind for Quinn and Yui?

Leave a comment with your picks. I might feature your casting in a future post, or even use it in Beyond the Lost Assault teasers, since there will be a whole lot more characters to cast in it.

Stay tuned. The storm’s just getting started.

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