Fresh out of NYCC, Josh Brolin has some news for us: he’s joining another sci-fi project. And no, he’s not playing another mutant with a techno-virus or traversing the sands of Arrakis. The Wake Up Dead Man star announced at his panel at New York Comic Con that he’s joining the cast of The Running Man, the upcoming reboot of the classic Stephen King dystopian tale starring Glen Powell.
Brolin didn’t reveal any details about who exactly he’s playing in the reboot, but we do know he’ll be joining Powell and Love Lies Bleeding’s Katy O’Brian, in the film directed by Edgar Wright, who co-wrote the script with Michael Bacall. Powell is set to play protagonist Ben Richards, a man who stoops to terrifying lows in order to get his daughter the medicine she requires, and the film is also set to star Karl Glusman, who joined the cast just yesterday.
Brolin’s no stranger to sci-fi, having starred in both the aforementioned Dune and playing mutant Cable in Fox’s Deadpool sequel. He’s dipped his toe into horror plenty of times before, having starred in Paul Verhoeven’s Hollow Man and the American remake of Oldboy, as well as — depending on how far you stretch your definition of horror — the poorly received Jonah Hex adaptation in the early aughts.
The Running Man was originally published by King in 1982, under the now-infamous pseudonym Richard Bachman. It follows the desperate Ben (Powell), who joins a deadly competition in which hunters track down competitors to kill them. The longer they survive, the more money they make, but what happens when someone breaks the rules of the game? Guess we’ll just have to watch to find out.
The novel, one of eight King wrote under the Bachman pen name, was adapted into a film once before, directed by Paul Michael Glaser and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. That film was only loosely based on King’s novel, but who knows how faithful Powell’s upcoming reboot will be. The film is set to hit theaters next Thanksgiving season, on November 21, 2025 — ironically, the same year the original novel takes place.
The reboot of The Running Man is set to hit theaters next year. Keep an eye on FANGORIA for updates as they arrive.
