The Running Man 2025 Trailer Brings Back King’s Deadly Game Show

Paramount Pictures today released the first trailer for the 2025 film adaptation of The Running Man 2025, which will be directed by Edgar Wright. This project marks a new iteration of the Stephen King-penned dystopian thriller, originally published under King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1982. It will be different from the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger-led action film, serving as a more direct adaptation of King’s bleak satire.

Stephen King originally published several novels under the Richard Bachman pseudonym in the late 1970s and early 1980s, before being revealed as the author in 1984. One of his more enduring Bachman-era works was The Running Man, a satirical, dystopian thriller which King reportedly knocked out in a single week’s time. The story is set in a failing, totalitarian United States in the year 2025 (coincidentally, the film’s release year as well). In this society, the most popular form of television entertainment is The Running Man, a bloody reality game show.

The main character, Ben Richards, is a down-on-his-luck man who lives in “Co-Op City” with his wife and dying daughter. Richards, who has been blacklisted by the regime for his job as a test pilot, is unable to find steady work to support his family. In a desperate attempt to give them a better life, Richards signs up for The Running Man, the most-watched television program in the country. Runners (the show’s contestants) are chased by government-sanctioned killers called Hunters, and are shot on and off the clock as their struggles are broadcast to a prurient public. Richards is framed as an enemy of the state and is given 12 12-hour head start on his Hunter. From there, it’s just a brutal race to survive.

It’s a simple enough premise, but with ominous implications. The show’s rules are uncomplicated: the contestant who survives for 30 days is declared the winner and takes home a $1 billion prize. The current record for the contest is 197 hours, and no one has ever come even close to breaking it. But, at the end of each day alive, the contestant still takes home a cash prize for every day they survive. Dispatching of Hunters comes with its cash incentive, and so each player takes part for a reason of their own making. Most are on hard times, desperate for change, but Ben Richards manages to do quite well in the competition, at least for a time. King fans will remember that happy endings aren’t often the order of the day in his work.

The 1987 film adaptation of The Running Man makes some significant departures from the original book. It maintains the concept of a deadly game show at its center, but it veers more into sci-fi and action territory, and apes the bombastic blockbuster filmmaking of the late 1980s. In that film, Schwarzenegger’s Ben Richards is more action hero than down-and-out criminal—a far cry from King’s “scrawny, pre-tubercular” character. The movie was louder, more fun, and gadget-heavy, but it lost a lot of the satire and pathos of the book.

Wright is no stranger to the action/comedy/horror subgenre of King adaptations. He’s best known for directing Shaun of the Dead, Baby Driver, and Last Night in Soho, and first expressed interest in adapting The Running Man in 2017. Paramount greenlit the film in 2021, with Wright joining forces with co-writer Michael Bacall. In interviews, the two have said that their adaptation would remain true to King’s work, without skimping on the action or social commentary.

The recently released trailer would seem to bear this out. The actor taking on the role of Ben Richards is Glen Powell, whose usual wheelhouse has been more on the charming side; here, he plays a gruff and desperate Richards. Josh Brolin stars as Dan Killian, the sleazy game show host who dupes Ben into signing up for the competition. As the game progresses and Ben gains a following, he quickly becomes a threat to the government. His popularity has Killian scrambling to contain the damage.

Lee Pace is also in the cast, playing Evan McCone, the top Hunter tasked with pursuing Ben. Jayme Lawson plays Ben’s wife, Sheila. Colman Domingo hosts the game show as Bobby Thompson. Michael Cera has a notable role in the film, playing a rebel named Bradley Throckmorton. Other actors in supporting roles include William H. Macy, David Zayas, Emilia Jones, Karl Glusman, Katy O’Brian, and Daniel Ezra.

Wright and Bacall have not yet stated whether their film will commit to King’s grim ending. But early indications are that this adaptation will not shy away from its darker themes, including desperation, exploitation, and the desensitizing of violence on television.

More King Competition For 2025

Fans of King’s Bachman-era novels and stories will have more than one film to look forward to this year, with a second dystopian competition story, The Long Walk, also due for release in 2025. King wrote The Long Walk in 1979. Its film adaptation is set to release on September 12, two months before The Running Man hits theaters on November 7.

With the stories sharing themes of government brutality, media influence, and the costs of survival, 2025 should be a major year for King fans—and perhaps a cautionary one for anyone who sees reflections of our present in his fictional future.