Stephen King’s Game Show Nightmare Returns in The Running Man (2025)

Paramount Pictures has dropped the first trailer for The Running Man (2025), Edgar Wright’s remake of Stephen King’s cult novel. The thriller was originally published under the author’s pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1982. This incarnation will not be a direct remake of the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger action film.

Stephen King first published three novels under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in the late 1970s. A fourth book, The Running Man, was released in 1982 before King was unmasked in 1984. His reason for using a pen name? King felt his prolific writing would suffer if publishers and readers got to know his pace of churning out bestsellers.

King wrote The Running Man in one week. It follows a blacklisted former union representative, Ben Richards, living in an Orwellian America in the year 2025. The nation has devolved into a totalitarian state, with power concentrated in the hands of an oppressive government. Amid this, a deadly game show dominates the airwaves, bringing a glimmer of distraction to an otherwise dystopian existence.

Richards is at the end of his rope. He lives in a public housing project with his wife and terminally ill daughter. Ben’s wife Sheila works two jobs, but the family is always on the verge of losing their home. Ben has been blacklisted after union activism and can’t find work. In desperation, Ben takes a chance and signs up for The Running Man, the country’s most popular show.

Runners are pursued across the country by teams of contract killers called Hunters. In 2025, every household will have at least one video receiver, allowing all citizens to watch the show from the comfort of their homes. The entire game is broadcast in real-time. Runners and Hunters are each given a 30-day supply of food, weapons, and supplies, and anyone who can survive 30 days is awarded $1 billion. The record for the longest time survived is 197 hours. Runners who kill Hunters earn a cash bonus, but they must survive another day to collect the reward.

Richards is a reluctant participant. He is called an enemy of the state, with the show announcer speculating on Ben’s possible crimes. Ben is given a 12-hour head start. When a high school student figures out the location of his water distillery, Ben becomes an instant fan favorite. After a local farmer takes his daughter in, Ben can survive on his own for days. But he knows that the longer he stays in the game, the better his odds of survival. The problem is, he’s going to have to hunt down the Hunters soon.

The 1987 film The Running Man was a modest hit for Schwarzenegger, but it bears little resemblance to the original novel. The film kept the broad strokes of the competition show while adding space-age sci-fi elements. It embraced the action movie vibe of late ’80s big-budget films. Ben Richards was bulked up in both film and television, a far cry from King’s original characterization of the character as a scrawny malcontent with a “pre-tubercular cough.”

The Running Man marks a major commitment from Wright, whose most well-known films include Shaun of the Dead, Baby Driver, and Last Night in Soho. Wright had first expressed interest in The Running Man in 2017, with Paramount greenlighting the project in 2021. Wright would later hire Michael Bacall as co-writer, with the team promising a movie that would be truer to the source material while also adding its action-and-chaos flair.

The first trailer is a promising start for the film. Glen Powell stars as Ben Richards, replacing Schwarzenegger in the lead role. Josh Brolin is the brash game show host Dan Killian, who both entices and goads Ben into entering the competition. As Ben is discovered by fans and becomes a symbol of hope and resistance, he is identified by the government as a threat.

Lee Pace stars as the show’s lead, Hunter Evan McCone, while Jayme Lawson plays Ben’s wife, Sheila. Colman Domingo is the game show host Bobby Thompson, with Michael Cera in a standout role as Bradley Throckmorton, a member of the resistance. William H. Macy, David Zayas, Emilia Jones, Karl Glusman, Katy O’Brian, and Daniel Ezra fill out the cast.

It remains to be seen how the project will handle the book’s famously bleak ending. Early evidence shows that the production is not shying away from some of King’s themes of desperation, self-interest, and the dehumanizing effects of media violence.

King’s Bachman is Getting a Busy Resurrection

This is not the only Bachman-era novel that King has adapted for the big screen in recent years. Another dystopian competition film, The Long Walk, is also getting a remake, with a script from Wright and Bacall. That movie is set to be released on September 12, 2025—only two months before The Running Man’s November 7 debut.

Inspired by a Stephen King short story, The Running Man follows contestants in a competition to see who can walk the longest distance without stopping. The first person to quit or cross the finish line before the 100th place contestant is eliminated.

Like The Running Man, The Long Walk was originally published in 1979 and also gained cult status. It is also another story that deals with government oppression, violence, media addiction, and, of course, a bloody contest. Fans can expect some bleak commentary from Stephen King in 2025.