YouTube Rabbit Hole: X Factor Conspiracy Videos Inspired a Character in The Running Man, Says Edgar Wright

Edgar Wright is taking on Stephen King again, this time with The Running Man, and he is not just dusting off a 40-year-old novel set in 2025 and calling it a day. King’s bleak joke about our obsession with televised spectacle and constant surveillance feels uncomfortably current, so Wright has tuned it for right-now in some pointed ways.

The big update: Bradley is no longer just a guy in the crowd

One of Wright’s sharper tweaks is Bradley Throckmorton. In the book, Bradley’s a Boston gang member who crosses paths with Ben Richards and rails against the government, pushing Ben to see the state-run TV network for what it is: propaganda. That’s still the spine of the character in the movie, but the 2020s version adds a twist that makes a lot of sense: Bradley, played by Daniel Ezra, is part of an online community that obsessively dissects The Running Man competition. He posts anonymous videos connecting dots, poking holes, and generally doing the internet thing. Those clips show up in the film and quietly fill in crucial story beats. It is a clever, very-of-the-moment way to show how the public talks about this kind of show now.

"Bradley, that character, is in the book, but the idea that he’s this super-fan-stroke-conspiracy theorist was a really fun idea," Wright tells GamesRadar+. "To sort of take the ball and run with that, yeah, that was definitely a new addition that felt like something that we know about now in terms of a way of talking about [reality TV]. I mean, we literally watched when we were writing conspiracy videos about X Factor on YouTube, of which there are tons of conspiracies."

Ben’s deal, the rules, the impossible odds

Glen Powell plays Ben Richards, a regular guy pushed into the televised meat grinder because he needs money for his sick daughter. If you have not read the book: it is a deadly chase show. If you can survive, you get paid. That is the pitch. The math is not in your favor.

• Contestant: Ben Richards (Glen Powell), entering under duress to help his daughter.
• The challenge: Outrun a squad of elite Hunters for 30 days.
• The prize: $1 billion if you make it to the end.
• The catch: No one has ever actually won.

Why this lands now

The novel was published four decades ago and set in 2025, which makes its timing feel a little spooky. Wright clearly clocked that and leaned into the parts that resonate today: the government’s fingerprints on entertainment, the way fan communities morph into watchdogs, and how conspiracy chatter becomes the background noise of every big show.

When you can see it

The Running Man hits UK cinemas on November 12 and opens in US theaters on November 14.