2025 has proven to be an incredible year for Stephen King, as multiple major adaptations of his work have dominated theaters. Projects like The Monkey, The Life of Chuck, and The Long Walk have all been released to significant critical acclaim, successfully translating the author’s famously diverse literary worlds for the big screen. This successful run of projects shows no signs of slowing down, as the universe of his iconic novel IT is set to expand with the highly anticipated prequel series Welcome to Derry. Amidst this wave of popular releases, another classic is being resurrected for a new generation. A brand new, faithful adaptation of King’s dystopian thriller, The Running Man, is heading to theaters, promising a very different experience from its well-known predecessor.
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King himself has now seen The Running Man and took to social media to give it his enthusiastic seal of approval. “I’ve seen it and it’s fantastic,” King stated on X. “DIE HARD for our time. A bipartisan thrill ride.” This is exceptionally high praise, as Die Hard is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential action movies ever made. Furthermore, King’s endorsement carries significant weight because he has famously never shied away from criticizing adaptations of his own work, with his dislike for Stanley Kubrick’s iconic version of The Shining being a legendary example. So, the author’s excitement is a clear signal that the new take on The Running Man has successfully captured the spirit of his original vision.
The Running Man Is a Different Take on a Popular Story
For most audiences, the title The Running Man immediately brings to mind the 1987 sci-fi action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. That movie, with its over-the-top game show aesthetic and memorable one-liners, became a cult classic of the era. However, it was also a notoriously loose adaptation of the source material, a fact that has long been a point of contention for both King and his readers. The Schwarzenegger film transformed the story into a vehicle for its star, focusing on a wrongly convicted hero forced to battle flamboyant gladiators in a contained arena. The upcoming version, directed by Edgar Wright, aims to correct this by delivering a far more faithful retelling of King’s novel.
The original 1982 novel, written under King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman, is a much darker and grittier affair. Its protagonist, Ben Richards (Glen Powell in the new movie), is not a framed super-cop but an impoverished and desperate man living in a bleak, totalitarian future. His motivation is not freedom, but survival and the hope of earning enough prize money to afford medicine for his critically ill daughter. The game itself is also fundamentally different. Instead of a televised gladiator match, the novel’s version of “The Running Man” is a global, month-long manhunt where the contestant is declared an enemy of the state and hunted by everyone. This new adaptation will hew closely to that grim premise, restoring the novel’s core themes of media manipulation, economic desperation, and class warfare. Wright himself has been clear that his film is not a remake of the 1987 movie but a new adaptation of the book, a decision King fully supports.
The Running Man is scheduled to be released in theaters on November 14, 2025.
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Image courtesy of Lucasfilm
