Glen Powell has been going from strength to strength ever since Top Gun: Maverick (finally) came out in 2022, and he is now unquestionably in his busy season as one of the most in-demand actors under 40. Two months ago he was donning a prosthetic nose and wig for his football comedy series, Chad Powers, but he has already moved onto the next thing, filming Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man.
Do we need a remake of The Running Man? Arguably no. But EDGAR WRIGHT is making it, and who is ever going to tell Edgar Wright no? Besides Marvel, that is. Powell is taking over the Schwarzenegger role of Ben Richards, a good man forced into a violent reality competition in which criminals fighting for their freedom, called “runners”, are forced to fight “stalkers”, or mercenaries who hunt them to the death. The Running Man is one of those Eighties movies that goes big on action and bombast, but it has themes that remain relevant nearly forty years later, chiefly around media manipulation and government cover-ups.
The remake of Total Recall, a similarly blustery Eighties movie that got a contemporary face lift, didn’t do an effective job refreshing that story for a twenty-first century audience, but I’m hopeful Edgar Wright can do something interesting with The Running Man. I’m also curious whether or not he’ll stick closer to the source material—a novel by Stephen King originally published under the name Richard Bachman—than the 1987 movie did.
He certainly has a great cast to work with. Powell is joined by Josh Brolin, Lee Pace, Katy O’Brian (who appeared with Powell in Twisters), Emilia Jones, and Wright is reuniting with his Scott Pilgrim star, Michael Cera. That’s a great cast, and The Running Man is being set up as Paramount’s big Thanksgiving movie for 2025. Glen Powell’s busy season means we’re going to be seeing a lot of Glen Powell over the next couple years. I’m not complaining.
