Lee Pace Imagines How His Halt and Catch Fire Maverick Would Upend 2025 Tech
As he chases Glen Powell in The Running Man, Lee Pace says Halt and Catch Fire’s Joe MacMillan would be tearing through 2025—targeting AI, seizing new platforms, and rewriting the rules all over again.
Lee Pace is doing the press rounds for Edgar Wright's new take on 'The Running Man' — where he is, technically, on screen — and yes, he's chasing Glen Powell's Ben Richards. But you mention Lee Pace, you get questions about 'Halt and Catch Fire'. In a chat with The Hollywood Reporter, he happily went there: where Joe MacMillan would live in a 2025 tech landscape, and when that AMC cult classic finally clicked with critics.
So where's Joe MacMillan in 2025?
Pace does not buy the idea that Joe ever truly retires. He loved how the series left Joe pointed toward mentoring the next generation, but in his mind, the guy would still be scanning the horizon for the next big thing. He even rattled off the exact kinds of frontiers Joe would be poking at right now.
"I don't think Joe MacMillan ever retires."
He also said he would be fascinated to see what 'Halt and Catch Fire' co-creators Chris Rogers and Chris Cantwell would dream up for Joe in the current moment, because the menu of possibilities is wide open and the stuff being built right now is going to shape the rest of our lives.
- Joe's not actually retired; he'd be mentoring while still chasing the future
- Areas he would obsess over: AI, satellites, and avatar-style tech
- Pace sees today's projects as the ones that will define the years ahead
When the show actually turned the corner
Pace says season 2 was the moment audiences started to smell what the show was cooking, and season 3 is when they really hit stride. AMC, according to him, believed in the team enough to keep the thing going while everyone found the focus. He describes a very hands-on, collaborative process: the writers tightening the vision, the actors pushing each other, and full script read-throughs every episode. Over time they built the chemistry people now rave about. He even tips his hat to AMC for making the math work behind the scenes because they genuinely believed in the series — a refreshingly blunt bit of process talk you do not hear every day.
Meanwhile, about 'The Running Man'
All of this came up because Pace is out promoting Wright's film, where he's playing the guy hunting down Glen Powell's Ben Richards. Different chase, same Pace intensity. And if AMC ever wants another swing at Joe MacMillan? Sounds like that door is very much open in his mind.