Edgar Wright’s The Running Man will be a little Scott Pilgrim reunion, as THR reports that Michael Cera is set to appear in the new adaptation. Emilia Jones, best known for Locke & Key and CODA, has also joined the cast.
Glen Powell (Twisters) stars in The Running Man as a “desperate man, needing money for his sick daughter, who joins the most popular show, The Running Man, in which teams of killers hunt down contestants. The longer that a contestant survives, the more money that person makes. But as the game show’s producers and killers will find out, this desperate man will break all the rules and expose the show’s dark secrets.” Cera will play a “naïve rebel who tries to help the desperate man,” while Jones will play a “privileged woman blind to the oppression of the government opposite Powell’s Richards.“
Josh Brolin (Avengers: Endgame) is also set to star as the ruthless producer behind the violent reality show, alongside Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding) as one of the contestants and Lee Pace (Foundation) as the brutal chief hunter tracking down Powell’s character. Daniel Ezra (All American) will also appear.
Edgar Wright is directing The Running Man from a script he co-wrote with Michael Bacall. It’s based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name, which was published in 1982 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Wright has previously said that The Running Man remake will be closer to the original Stephen King novel than the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. “I like the film but I like the book more, and they didn’t really adapt the book,” Wright said. “Even as a teenager when I saw the Schwarzenegger film I was like, ‘Oh, this isn’t like the book at all!’ And I think, ‘Nobody’s [done] that book.’ So when that came up, I was thinking, and Simon Kinberg says, ‘Do you have any interest in The Running Man?’ I said, ‘You know what? I’ve often thought that that book is something crying out to be adapted.’ Now, that doesn’t mean that it’s easy!“
Michael Cera recently reprised his role of Barry in Sausage Party: Foodtopia, which Prime Video has renewed for a second season. Emilia Jones recently starred in Winner, a darkly comedic biopic based on the true story of Reality Winner, the whistleblower who leaked classified documents confirming Russian interference in American elections.
The Running Man will hit theaters on November 21, 2025.