The Running Man (2025) Trailer: King’s Dark Vision Comes Alive

Paramount Pictures has just released the first trailer for The Running Man, Edgar Wright’s upcoming adaptation of the 1982 novel of the same name. This is a new film based on the Stephen King book, previously adapted for film in 1987 with Arnold Schwarzenegger. And although both films center on the eponymous game show in which a hunted contestant called the Runner has 30 days to survive, the new film looks to be a more faithful adaptation of King’s bleak satire.

Published in 1982 under King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman, The Running Man is set in 2025—the same year the new film is scheduled for release—in a dystopian United States, on the verge of totalitarian control. During this period, King also released several other novels under the Bachman name before his identity was revealed in 1984.

The Running Man was one of the more popular of those Bachman titles. King wrote the novel in one week, and it has remained in print ever since. It was adapted into the 1987 Schwarzenegger movie of the same name, which recast the book’s plot as an action flick, but it was the source material itself that likely inspired some of today’s most popular dystopian series, like The Hunger Games and The Bachelor, judging by the trailer for The Running Man.

The story is narrated by Ben Richards, an average American. He and his wife live in “Co-Op City” with his ailing young daughter, working low-wage jobs to make ends meet. They are an otherwise happy family, but Richards is blacklisted and unable to work. When he is called to the “Help” booth that dispenses government jobs, he is rejected once again. Needing money and something to help his family, he decides to take a risk and becomes a contestant on the Running Man, the most popular game show in the country.

As seen in the trailer, contestants on The Running Man are referred to as Runners and are hunted down by professional assassins called Hunters while the entire experience is broadcast to the nation for mass consumption. The catch is that the Runner is branded a traitor and has 12 hours to get as far away as possible before the Hunters are released. Each day the Runner remains alive, they are paid $5 million; the first Runner to survive 30 days wins the grand prize of $1 billion. In the history of the show, the record for the longest time a Runner has survived is 197 hours.

In the novel, Richards is described as a scrawny, pre-tubercular man, hardly the Arnold Schwarzenegger action hero that the original film version made him. Ben’s “contestant profile” reads, “divorced, underemployed, no criminal record, no psych profile, about 130 pounds, 5’10”.” To survive, he has to fight back against his Hunter opponents by using whatever weapons he can find. Ben Richards does quite well for himself, though, as you might expect from a Stephen King novel, it’s never quite happy days after that.

In the past, Edgar Wright has described his interest in adapting the film. Wright has been circling the project since 2017 when he was attached to write and direct, with Paramount greenlighting production in 2021. Wright is best known for his work on the films Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver, and Last Night in Soho. He has since moved on from the film, though, replaced by producer Joby Harold.

Still, the spirit of Wright’s particular directorial stylings is reflected in the new film through writer Michael Bacall. According to their Pitch Deck for The Running Man, Wright and Bacall plan to tell a story that “doesn’t skimp on action set pieces or edge-of-your-seat tension” but is “an honest adaptation of the novel that leans into its bleak yet satirical vision.”

This satirical take seems to be visible in the new trailer. Actor Glen Powell plays the lead role as Ben Richards, well cast in the part as a scruffy everyman rather than his usual adorable go-to-man-next-door archetype. Josh Brolin is the sinister host of The Running Man as Dan Killian, who has some cruel fun playing on Ben’s desperation at the film’s outset. In the course of the game and his popularity, Richards becomes the people’s champion and enemy of the regime, in the words of the trailer, “one bad move from martyrdom.”

Joining Pace in the cast is Jayme Lawson as Ben’s wife, Sheila. Colman Domingo plays game show host Bobby Thompson, and Michael Cera plays a rebel leader named Bradley Throckmorton. In supporting roles are William H. Macy as Al Frantz, David Zayas, Emilia Jones, Karl Glusman, Katy O’Brian, and Daniel Ezra.

Funnily enough, 2025 is also the year another of King’s Bachman books is set for film adaptation. The Long Walk, also written in 1979 and published in 1984 under the Bachman name, will be in theaters on September 12. The Running Man has a November 7 release date, so fans of King’s early 1980s work will have plenty to be excited about.

Both stories grapple with the horror of a government’s cruelty, the brutality of the media as both a distractor and a tool of propaganda, and the cost of survival when entertainment is concerned. It’s a hell of a lineup and, it should be said, not a coincidence of any sort. 2025 will be a good year for Stephen King fans and, no doubt, a very sobering one for other folks.