2025’s Running Man Promises a Bleak, Brutal Ride

Paramount Pictures has dropped the first trailer for The Running Man (2025), a new adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name. This latest trailer, in particular, offers more of a sense of what the actual film might look like. And director Edgar Wright’s vision of the story is coming across as a grittier, more faithful adaptation than the Schwarzenegger action movie from nearly four decades ago.

King, who also wrote The Running Man under his Richard Bachman pseudonym, originally published the book in 1982. It’s one of several novels King released in the late 1970s and early ’80s under the Bachman name. His true identity was revealed in 1984, four years before The Running Man would make it to theaters.

King wrote the novel in only seven days, set in a dystopian, totalitarian United States in 2025. As one might guess, The Running Man (2025) film is also set for a 2025 release, bringing us full circle. The story takes place in the future when the government can no longer handle a massive economic recession. The only thing they can produce is a television show that broadcasts a manhunt in real time. In the film, the set-up is the same: a murderous game show that keeps audiences glued to the screen.

The film stars Glen Powell as Ben Richards, a working-class man who lives with his wife and a sick child in a “Co-Op City” development. Unable to find work and essentially blacklisted from his career as an electrician, Ben decides to compete on The Running Man as a last-ditch effort to keep his family afloat. As the Running Man game show name suggests, he’s going to have to run from Hunters, or professional assassins, while being hunted down by an army of drones and helicopters.

In the story, Ben is labeled as an enemy of the state and given a 12-hour head start in his race to stay alive. It’s a terrifying race for survival: with no one in his corner, Ben will have to use his wits and a lucky roll of the dice to survive. The stakes are simple enough: the first person to make it 30 days wins $1 billion. This might sound a lot, but no one’s ever come close. The record before Ben’s hunt is at 197 hours, so it’s a virtual impossibility. But each day adds to the contestant’s prize, as do the bounties for each Hunter they dispatch. It’s slim pickings, but there’s at least an incentive.

But Ben is a survivor, and he does better than one might expect. The story is a little more of a surprise for fans, though. A lot of this has to do with King’s famous—and bleak—ending. The 1987 film took a lot of liberties with the source material. For one thing, the stakes of the game were different: rather than 30 days, the movie’s Ben Richards had to make it 30 miles.

The source material was far more straightforward and, in some ways, bleak. The character was described as “scrawny” and “pre-tubercular” in the book—a far cry from Schwarzenegger’s beefcake physique. It was more of an action movie and also added more emphasis on fantasy to the mix: for example, when an invisible plane carries the Hunters out of the city. The movie was also loud and fun. It was a run-and-gun action extravaganza, but there was little of the heart or dark satire of the original novel.

Wright, who’s best known for his work on Shaun of the Dead, Baby Driver, and Last Night in Soho, became interested in The Running Man in 2017. Paramount first greenlit the project in 2021, and Wright is reuniting with frequent collaborator Michael Bacall to pen the script. The two plan to follow the book closely, but offer Wright’s sense of humor, stylish action, and social commentary.

Glen Powell as Ben Richards gets first billing, with Josh Brolin as Dan Killian, who hosts the show and tries to convince Ben to participate. As the game goes on, Ben is becoming a fan favorite, which makes him a direct threat to the regime. The cast also includes Lee Pace as Evan McCone, the lead Hunter charged with tracking Richards down. Jayme Lawson plays his wife Sheila, while Colman Domingo plays the game show host Bobby Thompson. Michael Cera takes on a mysterious role as Bradley Throckmorton, part of the rebellion against the government. Also on hand in smaller roles are William H. Macy, David Zayas, Emilia Jones, Karl Glusman, Katy O’Brian, and Daniel Ezra.

Wright and Bacall have yet to indicate whether they plan to follow King’s grim conclusion or not. But what the trailer suggests is a more faithful adaptation that won’t back away from some of King’s more timely themes about the intersection of television violence, empathy, and capitalism.

Fans of King’s Bachman period have a lot to look forward to. The Long Walk, another of his dystopian competition stories, is also due for a film adaptation in 2025. While not much is known about that production yet, it is coming to theaters, set for release on September 12. Just two months later, on November 7, The Running Man is ready to take on 2025. Both The Long Walk and The Running Man deal with topics like government cruelty, media manipulation, and the cost of survival. So 2025 is looking like a big year for fans, and perhaps a particularly sobering one for anyone who takes these issues to heart.