Stephen King’s Dystopia Comes to Life in 2025’s The Running Man

Paramount Pictures has just released a brand new trailer for The Running Man (2025), Edgar Wright’s adaptation of a classic dystopian thriller from Stephen King. The Running Man was first published under King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1982, but never made it to the big screen until a Schwarzenegger-led action film with the same name hit theaters in 1987. This new adaptation, which comes out in November 2025, is said to be a more faithful retelling of the author’s grimdark satirical novel.

Stephen King first started publishing novels anonymously under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in the late 1970s. He was using the name when a savvy bookstore owner identified the books as King’s in 1984. The author later revealed that he had used the pen name so often, at one point writing as many as four different Bachman books in one year, so that “only one of me was a successful writer.” King has noted that one of his most popular Bachman books was The Running Man, which he started in 1982 and knocked out in just one week. It’s a grim, satirical, sci-fi thriller set in a dystopian United States in the year 2025.

Richards is a struggling “coal miner with a high-school education” who lives with his wife and daughter in “Co-Op City.” When he is blacklisted and unable to find work, he comes up with a risky plan to compete on The Running Man, a violent game show with the highest ratings in the country. Contestants called Runners are hunted down by professional assassins known as Hunters, as their every move is broadcast to the public. Richards is labeled an enemy of the state and given a 12-hour head start. It’s not much, but survival is on the line.

The rules of the game are simple. If the Runner can avoid being killed for 30 days, they win $1 billion. In 30 days. Only one person has ever made it past 197 hours. Contestants get paid per day they survive. Hunters kill, too, and are paid handsomely by the network for doing so. These incentives give Runners just enough of a fighting chance to sign up for the game. Some do so for a chance at money to save their families, while others are just that destitute to begin with. Desperation is part of the system, but Richards does well in the game.

Fans of King will be unsurprised to learn that the book doesn’t end happily. And fans of the 1987 film are aware that the big-screen adaptation took many liberties with the source material. The basic premise of a game show in which contestants are given 30 days to avoid being hunted down by assassins, while every move is broadcast to a ravenous public, was kept. But the movie turned towards the sci-fi action end of the spectrum, also amplifying late ‘80s blockbuster style.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Ben Richards, for instance, looked much more pumped than King’s “scrawny” and “pre-tubercular” character description. The film was loud and fun, full of gadgets and explosions. But much of the bleak satire and emotional heft of the original novel was lost in translation.

Wright, whose most famous films include Shaun of the Dead, Baby Driver, and Last Night in Soho, has been on board for The Running Man since he said the film was on his list back in 2017. In 2021, Paramount gave the project the green light, with Wright working alongside co-writer Michael Bacall. They are said to be intent on doing more justice to King’s story and tone than the 1987 film did.

The trailer released today seems to confirm the film will find that balance between violence and satire, updating King’s social commentary for a new audience. Glen Powell plays Ben Richards, and as per his usual charm, he is toned down here to play a desperate and down-on-his-luck version of the character. Josh Brolin is Dan Killian, the sinister showrunner who talks Richards into playing. Killian encourages Richards, and as Richards does better in the game, he becomes a threat to the regime and a fan favorite.

Lee Pace plays Evan McCone, the lead Hunter in the game. McCone is up against the entire network, and eventually the country, in his manhunt for Ben Richards. Ben’s wife is played by Jayme Lawson, who stars as Sheila. Colman Domingo is the game show host Bobby Thompson, and Michael Cera plays a rebel named Bradley Throckmorton. In supporting roles are William H. Macy, David Zayas, Emilia Jones, Karl Glusman, Katy O’Brien, and Daniel Ezra.

A big question mark will be if Wright and Bacall stay true to King’s famously bleak ending. But the early signs are that the film won’t be afraid of confronting the seedier side of desperation, exploitation, and the numbing effects of televised violence.

Bachman Books Have a Big 2025

King fans should know that there’s a second Bachman book that is also getting a film adaptation in 2025. The Long Walk, a dystopian competition novel that King published in 1979, is set for a September 12, 2025, release. This makes The Long Walk a sort of partner piece to The Running Man, with both novels diving into similar themes of government brutality, the dehumanizing effects of media and capitalism, and the cost of survival.

Both of these films are centered on televised competitions that pit the poorest and most desperate members of society against one another. It seems we’re in for a sobering year in 2025 when we look at how entertainment, capitalism, and empathy intersect, at least through the lens of some of King’s most nihilistic work.