2025’s The Running Man Stays True to King’s Bleak Vision

Paramount Pictures has released the first trailer for The Running Man (2025) from director Edgar Wright. The new film is an adaptation of Stephen King’s dystopian thriller of the same name, which was published in 1982 as one of the author’s pseudonymous Bachman novels. It is unrelated to the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring action film of the same name.

In the late 1970s and early ‘80s, King began publishing several novels under the name Richard Bachman. He continued writing and publishing as Bachman until the pseudonym was exposed in 1984. The most well-known and enduring of those works is The Running Man, which King reportedly completed in a single week. Set in a dystopian United States in the year 2025 2025, The Running Man follows the efforts of a struggling young man to escape being hunted down by a team of government-sanctioned killers.

In The Running Man, Ben Richards lives with his wife and terminally ill daughter in “Co-Op City” on the outskirts of New York. Richards has been blacklisted and is unable to find work. He decides to take a chance and apply to be a contestant on the country’s most-watched television show: The Running Man. Contestants on the show, also called Runners, are set loose in the city and hunted by a team of professional assassins called Hunters. Their lives are broadcast to the entire country for all to see while millions root for the Runners to be found and killed. Ben is chosen and declared an enemy of the state. He is given a 12-hour head start, and then it is a race against time.

The rules of the show are simple: stay alive for 30 days, and the contestant wins $1 billion. In the 34 years since the book’s publication, no one has ever even come close, with the longest survival time standing at 197 hours. Contestants earn cash for each day they live, while bonus money is awarded for dispatching Hunters. There is a perverse incentive structure in place for the desperate or otherwise motivated contestants, even if the majority do not stand a chance against the professionals. Ben Richards defies expectations and does well, but for those familiar with the King universe, all is not sunshine and roses.

1987’s The Running Man film diverged significantly from the novel. While the film kept the premise of a deadly game show, the book’s gritty satire took a back seat to genre trappings. The film version of Ben Richards, played by Schwarzenegger, is much closer to an action hero than the “scrawny” and “pre-tubercular” figure King had written. The overall film was louder and more blockbuster-ready, with heavy doses of sci-fi action and ‘80s flourishes.

Wright has been in conversations about The Running Man since 2017. The film officially went into production after being greenlit by Paramount in 2021, with Wright co-writing the screenplay with Michael Bacall. The two announced their intention to be more faithful to the original material while still amplifying the action and social commentary present in the source material.

The recently released trailer is a strong indication of Wright’s plans for the story. The part of Ben Richards will be played by Glen Powell, known for roles in Here Comes the Cowboy and C’mon C’mon. Josh Brolin plays Dan Killian, a network producer who extorts Richards into competing on the show. As Ben outlasts other competitors and gains support from the viewing public, he soon becomes a beloved hero as well as a threat to the authoritarian government.

Lee Pace will play Evan McCone, the head Hunter assigned to track Ben. Jayme Lawson will appear as Ben’s wife, Sheila, and Colman Domingo will play Bobby Thompson, the host of the game show. Michael Cera will appear in a surprising role as a rebel, Bradley Throckmorton. Joining the cast in smaller roles are William H. Macy, David Zayas, Emilia Jones, Karl Glusman, Katy O’Brian, and Daniel Ezra.

The question of whether Wright and Bacall will follow the source material and employ King’s notorious bleak ending has yet to be seen. But early indications are that the film will not shy away from the novel’s more uncomfortable themes of desperation, manipulation, and a society numb to the very real violence it watches.

Fans of King’s Bachman work will not have to wait long for another entry on the release calendar. Another of King’s dystopian competition stories, The Long Walk, which he wrote in 1979, will also see a film adaptation released in 2025. The movie, directed by Matt Shakman and written by Zak Olkewicz, has a release date of September 12. The Running Man will arrive two months later on November 7.

Both films examine themes of authoritarianism, media exploitation, and survival at any cost. It seems 2025 will be an eventful year for King fans, and perhaps a more sobering year for viewers to consider the ways entertainment, capitalism, and empathy can often uncomfortably collide.