Arnold Schwarzenegger may not be running this time, but his legacy is front and center.
At this year’s New York Comic-Con, actor Glen Powell gave fans a first look at his upcoming project of The Running Man remake, and shared how the film pays tribute to the 1987 original.
In a red carpet interview with Entertainment Tonight, Powell revealed that the creative team made a conscious effort to honor Schwarzenegger’s portrayal of Ben Richards while reimagining the story for a new generation. In one of the scenes shown at the convention on Friday, ET pointed out that Schwarzenegger’s face appears on a stack of money, which was approved by the actor turned politician.
“I love Arnold Schwarzenegger,” Edgar Wright, the director and co-producer of The Running Man remake, told ET. “So we did pay homage to the great man.”
The original 1987 film was directed by Paul Michael Glaser and starred Schwarzenegger, María Conchita Alonso, Richard Dawson, Yaphet Kotto and Jesse Ventura. The film is set in a dystopian United States between 2017 and 2019, featuring a television show where convicted criminal runners must escape death at the hands of professional killers. It is loosely based on the 1982 novel written by Stephen King that was published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
The 2025 remake with the same name has a similar plot. But this time, the cast includes Powell playing Ben Richards, William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Emilia Jones, Michael Cera, Daniel Ezra, Jayme Lawson, Colman Domingo and Josh Brolin.
“I took a beating in this movie. Thank god I survived, but definitely left some scars,” Powell admitted to ET. “I have always wanted to go to Comic-Con…This is the place to really unleash a lot of this footage and show people what we got to make was exactly here.”
The Running Man remake will be released in theaters in the United States by Paramount Pictures on Nov. 14, 2025.
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