Stephen King’s The Running Man Gets a Faithful New Adaptation

Paramount Pictures has just released the first trailer for The Running Man (2025), a new film adaptation of Stephen King’s dystopian thriller by the same name. Directed by Edgar Wright, the movie will premiere on November 7 of this year. It will be a departure from the original 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring action film by the same name. This update to King’s material, which he first published as Richard Bachman in 1982, promises a more faithful adaptation of the author’s darker, more satirical source material.

Stephen King used the pseudonym Richard Bachman between the late 1970s and early 1980s, until being publicly “outed” as the author in 1984. A few of those books remain among King’s most popular, such as The Running Man, which has since been adapted into a 1987 action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. King also wrote his novel in a week, and it has aged only slightly less well.

King’s novel follows the dystopian 2025, in which the United States is on the brink of totalitarian collapse, but there is no shortage of televised violence and bloodlust. The eponymous game show is broadcast across the airwaves day and night, and those desperate enough are free to apply and play the deadly game. The rules of the game are simple: the Runner survives for 30 days, and he wins $1 billion. The current record is 197 hours, and as the Running Man takes place throughout 2025, this should give you a rough sense of the competition. In addition to a portion of the money for every day the contestant survives, there are additional monetary bonuses for killing off Hunters and prolonging the game in any way. The Running Man’s main character, Ben Richards, is a lower-class man who lives in a housing complex known as “Co-Op City” with his wife and chronically ill daughter. Richards is blacklisted and unable to find employment, and in a rash of desperation, decides to sign up for The Running Man, one of the nation’s most-watched television shows. Declared an enemy of the state, Richards is given 12 hours to gather supplies and acquire a location from which to play. Armed with a vest full of high-tech supplies, Richards is set loose on the great American open and forced to fight for his life for a total of 30 days.

The 1987 film adaptation was a loose, over-the-top action film that repositioned the Running Man concept more heavily into sci-fi territory. The shift from King’s source material was typical of late 1980s blockbuster filmmaking. While Schwarzenegger’s Ben Richards kept the same name and desperation is largely replaced by muscle and sweat.

Auteur filmmaker Edgar Wright is finally attached to the project after first announcing an interest in adapting the novel back in 2017. In 2021, Paramount gave the green light to Wright’s film, and he reunited with co-writer Michael Bacall to get the project off the ground. Fans of Wright’s past work, including his zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead, Baby Driver, and more recently Last Night in Soho, may have cause for excitement. Early reporting on The Running Man‘s progress seemed to suggest that Wright and Bacall would prioritize being more faithful to King’s novel. The newly released trailer, above, seems to confirm those early assessments.

The cast for The Running Man is an impressive list. Glen Powell plays the title role of Ben Richards, a role that should push him outside of his comfort zone in a charming direction. Josh Brolin plays Dan Killian, host of the Running Man television show, as well as a producer with more than a little political sway. As Ben Richards’ competition and enemy, the show’s lead Hunter is played by Lee Pace. Ben’s wife Sheila is played by Jayme Lawson, while Colman Domingo plays Bobby Thompson, the affable host of the titular television show. Michael Cera has a role as well as rebel Bradley Throckmorton. Additional cast members in supporting roles include William H. Macy, David Zayas, Emilia Jones, Karl Glusman, Katy O’Brian, and Daniel Ezra.

The casting and tone are promising, but whether Wright and Bacall will go all the way and commit to the novel’s famously bleak and downbeat ending remains to be seen. The trailer gives at least some indication that this adaptation won’t shy away from the story’s seedier and more sinister thematic elements, such as desperation, bloodlust, media exploitation, and the heartless and hollow nature of gratuitous violence.

A Busy Year for Bachman Fans

Fans of King’s Bachman era work will also have to look out for the 2025 film adaptation of The Long Walk. King also wrote the dystopian, competition-based novel in 1979. That movie has its release set for September 12 of this year, just two months before The Running Man arrives in theaters. With both stories fixated on the government’s cruelty, media exploitation, and the cost of survival, this will be a big year for Stephen King fans, and perhaps a bit of a sobering one for those who focus on the crossroads of entertainment, capitalism, and empathy.