- calendar_today August 19, 2025
King’s Running Man Gets a Gritty, Timely Reboot in 2025
Paramount Pictures released the first trailer for The Running Man (2025) late last week. Directed by Edgar Wright, it’s a new adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name, which was published under his Richard Bachman pseudonym in 1982. The trailer suggests that it will be far grittier and more faithful to King’s original than the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring action film of the same name.
The Running Man was one of several novels King released pseudonymously in the late 1970s and early 1980s, remaining undiscovered as Bachman until 1984. One of King’s best-known Bachman novels, The Running Man was written in just a week and set in a collapsing, totalitarian United States in the eponymous year, 2025.
In the book, Ben Richards is a blue-collar father of two who lives in a housing project called “Co-Op City” with his pregnant wife and a young daughter who is slowly dying of cancer. Blacklisted and unable to find work, Richards signs up for The Running Man, the most popular television show, as a last-ditch effort to keep his family alive.
Runners are hunted across the country by teams of professionals called Hunters. The teams chase each other on live television, to the glee of the voyeuristic, bloodthirsty public. Richards is declared an enemy of the state, his location is leaked to the public, and the show gives him 12 12-hour head start. The first Runner to survive 30 days wins $1 billion—but no one has ever come close. The current record is 197 hours.
Players can earn money for every Hunter they dispatch, and cash for every hour they survive. The main incentive to sign up for the game is almost always desperation: the ability to feed your family for a few months, pay for life-saving medicine, or simply because the contestant has nothing left to lose. Richards does better than anyone expects, but fans of King’s work know how it likely ends.
Wright’s The Running Man is a world away from its action movie namesake. Schwarzenegger’s 1987 film shared the premise of a deadly game show but turned it into more of a sci-fi action vehicle, tapping into the vibe of late ’80s action blockbusters.
The new Richards was Arnold, played as a brooding hero more buffoon than desperate. In the book, Richards was described as “scrawny” and “pre-tubercular.” The film, by comparison, was loud and fun and full of gadgets, but there was little of the original novel’s despair and satire.
Wright expressed interest in directing The Running Man back in 2017, but the project was officially greenlit in 2021. Wright and screenwriter Michael Bacall signed on to collaborate on the script, with both pushing for a version that was more faithful to King’s novel but just as high on action and acidic social commentary.
It’s not clear whether Wright and Bacall will use King’s notoriously bleak ending for the film. Early evidence from the trailer suggests that this version will hew closer to the original novel, though, and not be afraid to get grim.
Wright is a director with a much different aesthetic than most people’s conceptions of Stephen King, but the new trailer for The Running Man suggests he’s more than up to the challenge. Known for Shaun of the Dead, Baby Driver, and most recently, Last Night in Soho, Wright has long built his career on tone shifting from comedy to suspense and action.
The Running Man Trailer Offers First Look at Wright’s Dystopian Grit-Fest
The trailer shows Glen Powell as Ben Richards, who looks far less charming than he usually does onscreen. Josh Brolin is Dan Killian, a smooth operator and host of the show, who willfully overlooks Richards’ plan to use the show to broadcast his rebellion. Richards soon becomes a fan favorite, but also a bigger threat to the totalitarian regime than the game show itself.
Lee Pace is Evan McCone, the lead Hunter in the film, charged with tracking Ben down. Jayme Lawson plays Ben’s wife, Sheila. Colman Domingo is Bobby Thompson, the game show host. Michael Cera also has a prominent role in the film as Bradley Throckmorton, a rebel soldier and key to Richards’ plan. William H. Macy, David Zayas, Emilia Jones, Karl Glusman, Katy O’Brian, and Daniel Ezra also star in the film.
Bachman Fans Have More to Look Forward to in 2025
Fans of Bachman-era King have another project to look forward to in 2025, however. The Long Walk, another Bachman-written dystopian competition novel originally published in 1979, is also getting a film adaptation in 2025. The movie, due September 12, is scheduled to release just two months before The Running Man on November 7.
The Long Walk also follows a government-sanctioned competition show, this time, called The Long Walk, where teenage boys cross the country in groups of 100, in a winner-takes-all death race. The winner receives any prize he desires, as long as he can continue walking. It’s a series Stephen King has talked a lot about as being one of his favorites from his bibliography.
Both are incredibly bleak dystopian stories, and in light of current events, look like even more timely comments on the relationship between media, capitalism, and empathy than when King first wrote them. 2025 is already looking like a big year for fans of Stephen King, Bachman, or both.
