Glen Powell: Stephen King’s Pick for the New Running Man – Here’s Why!

Let’s not rush to dub Glen Powell the next Arnold Schwarzenegger, although it’s tempting to do so as the Hangman from Top Gun Maverick shares some common ground with the former Terminator. Like Schwarzenegger, Powell was part of the Expendables 3 cast eleven years ago and has recently headlined in Twisters. Today, he stars in the latest adaptation of Running Man, the second rendition following Schwarzenegger’s 1987 film, which was more notable for its lycra costumes than its adherence to Stephen King’s original novel.

Stepping into the shoes of Ben Richards, a worker who becomes a contestant in a deadly televised game where he must survive for a month to win a billion dollars for his sick daughter, Glen Powell runs, falls, gets up, takes hits, and fights back. Edgar Wright has set up numerous obstacles in his path, and Powell had to overcome a significant one before embarking on this adventure: convincing Stephen King himself, who approved Powell as the lead for this new cinematic version of his 1982 novel.

“Edgar and I agreed on this: the book had never really been made into a movie,” the actor shares. “There was the 1987 film with Arnold Schwarzenegger, but he himself acknowledged that, for various practical reasons, they hadn’t been able to adapt it properly. Due to budget constraints, the plot had to be confined within the four walls of a studio, whereas our movie takes place outdoors, in the real world. That’s a tricky concept when the entire world is chasing you (laughs). It changes the dynamics of what you need to film.”

“It was crucial that the hero looks like someone you could know”

“I’m not sure what Stephen saw in me, other than the fact that Ben needed to look like an average guy, because that was very important to him. The Ben Richards he created must embody everyone’s struggles: he wants to protect his family while an oppressive power tries to suppress people. As for Edgar, it was important not to have a traditional action hero, someone who was inherently predisposed to win and survive.” “It was crucial for me that the hero looks like someone you could know, to make it easier for the audience to relate to him,” the director and co-writer confirms.

“Sometimes, in action films, you end up with characters, or even actors, who are larger than life, and that establishes them as superheroes right from the start of the movie. Here, it was essential to remember that Ben Richards is a guy from the streets. An ordinary guy, an unemployed father. I thought Glen would be able to portray this aspect of Ben, making the story more thrilling.”

“You’ve never seen me do so much of this kind of thing before”

“I hope this is just the beginning of my career, in the sense that you’ve never seen me do so much of this kind of thing before,” Glen Powell adds with a smile. “So that might help the audience be unable to predict whether Ben will be able to survive or not. My ability to disguise, which you saw in Hit Man, also plays a role and you see a bit of that in Ben Richards.” Should Running Man prove successful, there’s no doubt that Powell’s status will evolve, to the point where he might be the one compared to Arnold Schwarzenegger in the near future, when casting for a new action hero.