It’s been a great year for Stephen King fans, and there’s no sign of things slowing down anytime soon. The King of Horror has delivered across mediums and genres in 2025, from movies The Monkey, The Life of Chuck, and The Long Walk, to TV show The Institute. There was even a new novel, with the return of Holly Gibney in Never Flinch. Still on the docket are HBO’s prequel It: Welcome to Derry, and Edgar Wright’s The Running Man.
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The latter of those has now received a new trailer, and it certainly doesn’t look like it’ll diminish what’s been a strong 2025. Directed by Edgar Wright and starring Glen Powell, the movie follows Ben Richards who, in a dystopian future, takes part in a game show where he’s hunted down by assassins for 30 days, all of which is broadcast to a bloodthirsty public. His only objective? Survival, which will bring life-changing sums of money. The new trailer for The Running Man puts more emphasis on the action, with Powell living up to the title (and looking rather Tom Cruise-esque) as he runs for his life, while there are lots of fiery, thrilling sequences.
Alongside Powell, The Running Man‘s cast includes Colman Domingo as the host of the eponymous game show, Josh Brolin as its producer, Lee Pace as one of the hunters, and Michael Cera as a rebel who helps Ben while he’s out on the run. All of that and more is showcased in the new trailer, which has plenty of thrills and laughs.
The Running Man Looks Like Another Strong Stephen King Adaptation
The Running Man, which King penned in 1982 under his pseudonym Richard Bachman, was previously adapted for the big screen into a 1987 movie of the same name, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. This was, however, a fairly loose adaptation and more of a vehicle for a typical 1980s Arnold-style action movie. That itself offers some entertainment value, of course, but it lost some of the grounded nature of the short story, and swapping its open environment for a specific, closed-off game arena was a mistake.
Wright’s adaptation looks like it’s sticking more closely to the source material, though still with plenty of his own style, which means it’s not quite as gritty or grounded as the book (though that probably makes for a better sell to general audiences than focusing on Ben’s motivations or the broader societal themes of the story). There’s a lot of Wright’s kinetic action in the trailer; the open setting makes it feel more unpredictable, and there’s some irreverent humor. Powell seems like a perfect star for this, not least because of how much charm and charisma he brings, as well as once again getting to show off his action chops. It also puts him in disguise, which worked brilliantly in 2024’s Hit Man.
Hopefully, this will be a big return to form for Wright, after his last movie, Last Night in Soho, proved a little more divisive. This certainly looks like more of a typical crowd-pleaser, and it’ll be interesting to see if that proves to be true at the box office. No Stephen King movie has grossed over $100 million since It: Chapter Two in 2019, but this has the right blend of thrills, interesting premise, and bona fide leading man to potentially change that.
The Running Man will be released in theaters on November 14th, 2025.
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image courtesy of 20th Century Studios
