Edgar Wright is back with an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Running Man. Find out everything we know about the 2025 movie here.
It’s been four years since an Edgar Wright movie appeared in cinemas. In fact, that year he treated us to two: the Anya Taylor-Joy vehicle Last Night in Soho, and the The Sparks Brothers, a documentary on the cult glam rock duo Sparks. Typical of the British filmmaker’s oeuvre to date, those two films were miles apart in terms of genre and stylings, but they were warmly received, the latter in particular being one of his best-reviewed works to date.
It’s just the one movie this time around, but it looks like a doozy. The Running Man is set to be released later this year and with a stellar cast and a much-loved genre director behind the wheel, this isn’t one to be missed. Here’s everything we know about The Running Man.
What is the plot of The Running Man (2025)?
Wright’s new film is a fresh adaptation of a Stephen King novel of the same title, written under the nom de plume Richard Bachman. The original book is set in a dystopian United States in the year 2025 (imagine that) and follows protagonist Ben Richards as he evades a group of hitmen as part of a disturbing reality TV show. The Running Man was loosely adapted for the cinema in 1987, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, with a lighter tone and some significant, Hollywood-friendly deviations from the plot of the source material. Wright’s adaptation is very much a new retelling of the book and not a remake of the movie, so don’t expect the two movies to have much in common besides the central premise. In an interview with Empire, the filmmaker described his Running Man as ‘a very intense, dangerous road movie’.
Everything we know about the cast
The role of Ben Richards previously taken up by Schwarzenegger will this time be played by Glen Powell; the Texan is currently on one hell of a roll since his breakout performance in Top Gun: Maverick, another update of sorts of an ’80s action flick. Katy O’Brien and Daniel Ezra will appear as Richards’ fellow contestants. The supporting cast of The Running Man also includes Josh Brolin, Karl Glusman, Lee Pace and Jayme Lawson, alongside Michael Cera, who teams up with Wright for the first time since 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Additionally, we’ll see CODA star Emilia Jones, William H. Macy, David Zayas, Sean Hayes and 97th Academy Awards Best Actor nominee Colman Domingo.
Who is Edgar Wright?
The director of The Running Man has been known to British audiences since his beloved 1999 TV comedy Spaced and Shaun of the Dead, the 2004 zombie apocalypse parody described as the world’s first ‘zom-rom-com’. During this time he built a creative relationship with both projects’ star Simon Pegg, as well as actor and comedian Nick Frost. The trio would go on to complete the ‘cornetto trilogy’ with genre comedies Hot Fuzz and The World’s End.
In between those two films, Wright snuck in an adaptation of the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels and a writing credit on Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin. Since then, he’s been a firm fixture in Anglo-American cinema, writing the original story for what would become Ant-Man and directing Baby Driver in 2017, before his aforementioned double whammy in 2021. You might also have seen his ads for Squarespace (featuring Zendaya) and McDonalds in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
The filmmaker is known for his unique takes on a variety of genres, beginning with the pure parodies of his early British work and evolving into more affectionate homages to classic US heist movies (Baby Driver) and Italian giallo films (Last Night in Soho). He loves a technical challenge, and his movies often include fast-paced editing, optical illusions and distinctive colour palettes. As is the case in The Running Man, Wright tends to serve as a director and co-writer on his projects, and his scripts are known for their sharp one-liners and recurring gags.
Who else is working on the new Edgar Wright movie?
Co-writing the screenplay with Wright is Michael Bacall, another Scott Pilgrim reunion, while Last Night in Soho director of photography Chung Chung-hoon returns too. Frequent Wright collaborator Paul Machliss is the film’s editor, with Grant Bailey and Kathryn Pile leading the movie’s art direction and set decoration respectively. Alongside Wright, Nira Park, Audrey Chon and Simon Kinberg are producing The Running Man.
Is there a trailer for The Running Man (2025)?
Unfortunately there’s no trailer to speak of right now, not even a teaser! We haven’t seen any static promotional material like a poster or logo either, so the best we have to go off is a small number of photos and videos taken from the set by the press and members of the public. We do know that filming took place in Glasgow and London, which included Battersea Power Station and an action sequence shot at Wembley Stadium.
When and where The Running Man will be released
The movie will be released globally on the same day, hitting U.S. and Canadian theaters and U.K. and Irish cinemas on November 7, 2025, two weeks earlier than previously stated. With Paramount Pictures as its distributor, it’s possible that the movie will later appear on Paramount+ where, if you’re in the US, you can watch the 1987 adaptation right now!
