Glen Powell reveals that he pleaded with Edgar Wright to be in his Running Man remake

Last Updated on July 18, 2024

Glen Powell’s stock rose significantly since his turn as the traditional team antagonist in Top Gun: Maverick, which followed in the footsteps of Val Kilmer’s Iceman in the original. As he partakes in romcoms (Anyone But You), quirky character pieces (Hit Man) and the upcoming big-budget disaster film, Twisters, the last year has been quite the ride for Powell. Of the many projects he’s been announced to partake in the future, one that the star admitted he vied for was the lead in Edgar Wright’s upcoming re-adaptation of The Running Man.

IndieWire recently sat down with the star when the subject of The Running Man entered the chat. Powell stated, “It was so fun for me because I searched ‘Edgar Wright’ in my email the other day, writing ‘Edgar.’ We’ve been going back and forth on script stuff, and it’s so fun. The world that Edgar’s developed on this thing is just outrageous. It’s so good. And really, we’re just both such big fans of the Stephen King book, and it’s going to be a great character. I’m so fired up about it. But I searched my email, and I searched Edgar Wright in my email, and it came up: I had a wish list of directors that I wanted to work with in 2008 when I moved out to LA that I sent my agent at the time — and Edgar Wright is literally number one. I’m such an Edgar Wright man. And so, the fact that I get to work with him right now is just so damn cool.”

The Twisters star said he had told Wright about his wishlist, “Yeah, I made a bit of an 11th-hour plea to him on the job. To just let him know, anybody that’s ever worked with me knows, you’re never going to outbeat my work ethic on stuff. But sometimes it’s just a good reminder for a filmmaker to know, hey, when we get in the trenches, I’m going to serve it up. I’m going to deliver. And I’m going to deliver for you because not only do I take this job seriously, but I’m also just a fan, and you don’t want to disappoint your heroes … Edgar has also become a friend in the last few years. So that’s been really fun for us to finally get in the trenches together.”