Running Man Reboot Star Says Edgar Wright Film Is “Very Much” Different From Original

According to star Glen Powell, filmmaker Edgar Wright’s take on The Running Man won’t have much in common with the previous film version released in 1987. The star, who broke out with Top Gun: Maverick and is currently out on the road promoting his new Netflix movie Hit Man, says that the contemporary take will have an identity of its own, in part because it will be more closely based on the source material. That would be a science fiction story by Stephen King (writing under the pseudonym Richard Bachman), which centers on Ben Richards, who stars in an ultra-violent reality show in order to win enough money to get medical care for his sick daughter. The premise of the show? He has to outrun and outmaneuver hunters and assassins who are on his tail. 

“I’ve been an Edgar Wright fan my whole life,” Powell told USA Today. “And talking to him about Running Man, what’s been really incredible is his take on it. It’s very much not the original Schwarzenegger flick, it’s much more grounded in the Stephen King (novella) version.

King’s futuristic novel is a chase thriller set in a dystopian America in the year 2025 which, if you’ve been paying attention, really doesn’t seem that farfetched. Of course, it’s likely they will either omit or modify that “future” timetable, since the movie is likely to hit theaters sometime in 2025.

With no official synopsis or information on the adaptation yet, there’s no word yet on who else will appear in the film or when it will enter principal photography. When pressed on who he might square off against in the movie, Powell threw out J.J. Watt and Ronda Rousey, but made it clear he had no insight yet as to who Wright was eyeing or even what kind of threats his character will face.  

Wright’s version of the movie is set for production under Paramount. A prior adaptation, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, was released by Tri-Star Pictures in 1987, although that movie bore little resemblance to the source material.

Since having his breakout role in Top Gun: Maverick, Powell has become one of the hottest leading men in Hollywood. He recently starred in Anyone But You alongside Sydney Sweeney, a romantic comedy that has grossed over $200 million. He has a number of projects coming up soon, including the sequel/reboot Twisters, coming to theaters in July.

Powell has a number of other projects in various stages of development, and his name is one that has popped up again and again in fan-casting and wild rumors about plans for James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe — although that feels like a long shot, since he said in an interview that he isn’t interested in most superhero projects.