Glen Powell is running for his life in the debut trailer for Edgar Wright’s The Running Man, a film that already looks to have more fidelity to the 1982 Stephen King novel than the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger-led adaptation.
The Running Man takes place in a near-future dystopian society, where The Running Man is a top-rated game show in which contestants, called Runners, have to survive 30 days while being hunted by professional hitmen to earn a cash reward. An unemployed Ben Richards (Glen Powell, Hit Man), blacklisted from employment and desperately in need of money for his daughter’s treatment, is enticed by the show’s producer, Dan Killian (Josh Brolin, Avengers: Endgame), to participate in the show. As the entire nation watches his every move and his life is threatened every step of the way, Richards desperately attempts to survive long enough for a shot at the enormous cash prize that awaits.
The fast-paced and electrifying trailer reflects the same kinetic signature style that Wright exhibited in 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and 2017’s Baby Driver, and audiences can likely look forward to him bringing the same rhythm to The Running Man. Glen Powell also displays a combination of grit, guts and manic defiant energy in a series of scenes that only add to the dynamism of the trailer.
The trailer also features Colman Domingo (Euphoria) as game show host, Bobby Thompson, Lee Pace (The Battle of the Five Armies) as lead Hunter Evan McCone, and Michael Cera (Superbad), reported by Entertainment Weekly to be playing Elton Parrakis, a shy but inventive man who aids Richards.
In a blink-and-you-will-miss-it shot, Wright’s The Running Man trailer manages to pay homage to the original Schwarzenegger classic, featuring a young Schwarzenegger on a stack of 100-dollar American banknotes.
Despite that, this iteration of The Running Man bears little resemblance to its 1987 namesake. In The Running Man (1987), Schwarzenegger plays Captain Ben Richards, a framed and incarcerated cop recruited by the game show The Running Man, where criminals earn their freedom by surviving as Runners against Stalkers who would hunt them down.
Whether you enjoyed the 1987 iteration or prefer something more faithful to the source material, like Wright’s new adaptation has been promised to be, The Running Man (2025) is set to draw both new and returning fans when it hits the ground running in theatres on 7 November 2025.
Conversation with Ting Wei is like chatting with a weird AI bot programmed only with One Piece lore and theories, sitcom quotes and other miscellaneous pop culture references. When he’s not sleeping, he’s highly likely reading manga. In fact, the only thing he reads more than manga is the Bible, and it’s honestly pretty close.
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