Paramount PicturesWe’re living in a Stephen King renaissance. From The Long Walk to The Life of Chuck to It: Welcome to Derry, 2025 is full of new takes on the horror icon’s prolific body of work. Up next, Edgar Wright, the director behind Hot Fuzz and Last Night in Soho, is dropping The Running Man, his version of the 1982 dystopian novel that saw where exploitative television programming was heading.There will be a few changes, however. Like the 1987 movie that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger before it, Wright’s new adaptation will rewrite the ending. Don’t worry; it’s a tweak cosigned by King himself. Glen Powell stars as Ben Richards in Edgar Wright’s take on The Running Man. | Paramount PicturesIn the original book, Ben Richards, the unwitting rebel forced into a deadly game show, decides to make a final stand against the powers that be by flying a plane into the skyscraper that houses the game’s headquarters. In the Schwarzenegger movie, this was changed to a happier ending where Richards gets the girl, defeats the villain, and walks away in one piece. In 2025, the book’s ending is still a little too bleak for Hollywood, not to mention how reminiscent of 9/11 it now is. Wright told Film Stories that the original ending was never considered, saying, “Everybody knew at the outset that [the novel’s ending] wasn’t going to be part of this adaptation.”Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Ben Richards got a happy ending in 1987. | Tri-Star PicturesWright’s ending, however, is different from the 1987 movie, and Wright explained how terrifying it was to share his idea with King. “Possibly the most nerve-wracking day of the entire production was writing to King with an attachment of the screenplay and pressing send,” Wright said. “He realised even before he read it that we weren’t going to be doing the ending from the book. He said, ‘I was very curious how you were going to tackle the ending, and I think you did a great job.’ So I was very happy with that.” Without the book’s tragic ending or the last movie’s upbeat ending, where does that leave Wright’s Running Man? Unlike most movie versions of King’s work, viewers will have no idea when they file into movie theaters next month.The Running Man hits theaters on November 7.