The Running Man Star Views New Stephen King Movie as ‘Timely’ (Despite Dystopian Setting)

In 1982, Stephen King’s The Running Man was published, depicting a dystopian United States in the year 2025. More than forty years later, a feature-length adaptation of The Running Man is set to be released in 2025, and one of its stars believes that the dystopian setting feels a little too real now.

Speaking with Empire, Colman Domingo, who plays Bobby Thompson, the host of The Running Man game show, shared how he feels the movie’s satirical dystopian world isn’t far from the one outside our windows. “I don’t think we have to look too far away from being in a dystopian society. That’s why there’s such a great need for a film like this,” he remarked, with the actor adding that Edgar Wright’s adaptation is going to entertain audiences as much as make them pause and think about the current state of society. “It’s going to be entertaining, but it makes you think about the kind of world we want to live in, and where we need to possibly press ‘pause’, to save our souls.”

The Running Man Is Nothing Without Its Host

Image via Paramount Pictures

Domingo joined The Running Man late into its production, with the actor’s casting announced in January 2025, three months into the movie’s five-month shoot. It has now been revealed that Domingo was only on set for a week, which the movie’s lead actor, Glen Powell, stated was part of the fun of making The Running Man. “I never felt alone. I felt like I was getting a new friend every couple of weeks. It always felt like a new chapter of the story,” explained Powell, who stars as the game show’s main contestant, Ben Richards.

Wright’s take on The Running Man, which was penned by Michael Bacall, was first announced in February 2021. The movie serves as the second adaptation of King’s 1982 novel, which was published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, after the Arnold Schwarzenegger-led 1987 movie, also titled The Running Man. Wright has already promised fans that his movie will be far more faithful to the source material, throwing Powell’s Ben Richards out into the real world to be hunted instead of limiting him to a game show set like the 1987 adaptation.

Powell and Domingo aren’t the only recognizable faces in The Running Man cast. Marvel Cinematic Universe stars Josh Brolin, Lee Pace, and Katy O’Brian are part of the dystopian action, as is Wright’s Scott Pilgrim star Michael Cera. Jayme Lawson, Emilia Jones, William H. Macy, David Zayas, Daniel Ezra, Karl Glusman, Simon Haines, and Sean Hayes round out the ensemble, with the majority either playing allies or enemies of Powell’s Ben Richards.

The Running Man is set to be the sixth and final King adaptation of 2025, after The Monkey, The Life of Chuck, The Institute, The Long Walk, and It: Welcome to Derry. Originally set to hit theaters at the start of November, Paramount recently pushed back the release of The Running Man by one week, with the movie now set to open on Nov. 14.

The Running Man

Release Date

November 14, 2025

Director

Edgar Wright

Producers

George Linder, Nira Park, Simon Kinberg

• Jayme Lawson

  Sheila Richards

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