The Running Man’s Ending Was Unfaithful—Here’s What Stephen King Really Thinks

Stephen King just signed off on Edgar Wright's The Running Man, and that is exactly the green light you want if you are making a new adaptation of his stuff. Even better: Wright is not remaking the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. He is going back to King's 1982 novel (the one he published as Richard Bachman) and, yes, making some updates where it counts.

King signs off, Wright exhales

Wright told Film Stories he was sweating the moment he finally emailed King the finished script. Why? Because the movie does not use the book's ending as-is. He says everyone knew from day one that the original finale was not going to make it into this version unchanged. King knew that too before he even read it.

"I was very curious how you were going to tackle the ending, and I think you did a great job."

That was King's response by email, according to Wright. In other words: approval granted. With that blessing, this one sounds like a faithful take on the novel's bleak world, not a nostalgia redo of the 1987 film.

So what actually changed?

This is where the behind-the-scenes wrinkle matters. In King's book, Ben Richards ends things by hijacking a plane and flying it into the network's headquarters. It is a brutal, unforgettable gut punch that fit the novel's tone. Post-9/11, that exact imagery plays very differently for obvious reasons. Wright has been up front that the ending as printed was never going to fly in a 2025 release.

He is keeping the core themes intact — rebellion, exploitation, media-as-meat-grinder — but reworking how the final blow lands so the message is the focus, not the shock of the specific act. The new climax is under wraps, and we will all find out what he cooked up when the movie hits theaters.

Why King still dislikes the 1987 movie

King has never been shy about his issues with the Schwarzenegger version. The novel is a nasty, angry story about poverty, control, and what people will do when they are cornered. The film turned that into a glossy game-show shoot-em-up with a quipping superhero at the center. Book-Ben Richards is not a tank in a Hawaiian shirt; he is a broke, desperate guy who signs up because his family is starving. King even wrote in his memoir, On Writing, that his Richards is "as far away from the Arnold Schwarzenegger character in the movie as you can get" (via SlashFilm). That pretty much sums it up.

The quick refresher

• The source: Stephen King's 1982 novel The Running Man, published under the pen name Richard Bachman.
• The new movie: Directed by Edgar Wright, starring Glen Powell, positioned as a fresh adaptation of the novel, not a remake of the 1987 film. King has read the script and praised Wright's new ending. Release date: November 14, 2025.
• The 1987 movie: Directed by Paul Michael Glaser, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Richard Dawson, Jim Brown, and Maria Conchita Alonso. Runtime: 1h 41m. Rotten Tomatoes score: 65%.

Bottom line

Wright is aiming for the book's darker DNA while steering the finale into something that works in 2025. King read it, liked it, and specifically called out the ending. That is a good sign. Now we wait to see what kind of punch Wright throws in the last act when The Running Man arrives on November 14, 2025.