The Running Man

THE RUNNING MAN (2025): LOVE, VETOES & A VERY BRUTAL ENDING THAT NEVER WAS

In a world where contestants are hunted for ratings, it turns out the real drama around The Running Man (2025) was happening in the headlines, the dance floors of Austin, and Stephen King’s living room. Buckle up: here’s the juiciest real‑world gossip orbiting Edgar Wright’s dystopian misfire.

Romance Rumors: Glen Powell’s Off-Screen Running Mate

• While Ben Richards was dodging assassins on-screen, Glen Powell was dodging relationship labels off it.
• Powell was spotted at Austin honky-tonk institution The Broken Spoke getting very cozy on the dance floor with actress Michelle Randolph. TMZ described the pair “locking in, swaying side to side” and trading “very intimate glances,” even as sources insisted there was “zero hanky‑panky or PDA” and they were just doing “what every other couple on that dance floor was doing” . Sure, Jan.
• Cosmopolitan later laid out a full timeline of their “casually seeing each other” situationship: rumors sparked in November 2025 after Michelle popped up at Powell’s SNL celebrations and an Austin bar night, then intensified when insiders claimed they’d been quietly dating since around October .
• The tea: Us Weekly’s source (as summarized in Cosmo) said Glen didn’t want anything “public or serious” but Michelle had already met his family and was considered “sweet and lovely” ^[2]. Low‑key couple, high‑key gossip.

Casting Chaos & Almost-Co-Stars

The Sydney Sweeney Mirage

• For months, film Twitter and fan forums were convinced Sydney Sweeney was reuniting with Powell for The Running Man, thanks to their Anyone But You chemistry and early trade chatter.
• An entertainment news item later flat-out stated: “Sydney Sweeney will not be co-starring with Glen Powell despite rumors,” confirming she was never actually on the call sheet for Edgar Wright’s film .
• Translation: the fandom basically fan-cast the movie into existence and then got mad at a casting that never happened.

Stephen King’s Royal Veto: Glen’s High-Stakes Approval Test

• Powell didn’t just audition for the role of Ben Richards — he had to survive the Boss Level: Stephen King’s personal judgment.
• According to Variety, Edgar Wright offered Powell the part with one giant string attached: King had final say. Powell recalled that Wright told him, essentially, “You’ve got the job… if Stephen King says yes” — and that the author was going to watch Powell’s film Hit Man that very night .
• Powell spent the evening wondering if he’d wake up still employed. Fortunately for him, King “loved” Hit Man and gave the thumbs‑up, clearing Powell to front the film ^[4].
• Imagine being Glen Powell, waiting to find out if a horror icon likes your rom‑com-thriller enough to decide your blockbuster future. That’s not a casting process, that’s a psychological thriller.

The Ending Too Dark for Hollywood: Edgar Wright Pulls Back

• If you thought the movie’s finale went a little soft compared to King’s book, you’re not imagining things — Wright literally decided the original screenplay was too brutal once real faces were attached.
• In an interview, Wright revealed that an early draft actually killed off Ben Richards’ wife Sheila and daughter Cathy, more in line with the novel. Once the script was married to real actors, he balked: “In the original draft, we did do the thing where Sheila and Cathy passed away… Like, this is too brutal” .
• He also confirmed they were never going to recreate King’s original ending, where Richards sacrifices himself in a plane crash: Wright pointed out it had “real-life parallels with a horrific real-life tragedy” and said evoking 9/11 would have been in “incredibly poor taste” ^[5].
• Instead, he reshaped the climax so Richards survives and becomes “the spark of the revolution” — a more hopeful, crowd‑pleasing finish that’s sparked endless fan debates about whether Hollywood chickened out ^[5].

The Quiet Flop Heard Round Hollywood

• Behind the glossy EW covers and Comic Con hype, the movie itself tripped at the box office finish line.
• Industry coverage later noted that The Running Man pulled in around $69 million worldwide on a reported $110 million budget — the kind of math that gets labeled “one of the biggest box office flops of 2025” in trade and fan chatter .
• Paramount nudged the release by a week, supposedly to give it breathing room, but it wasn’t enough to turn Wright’s most expensive film into a hit. The movie later found a second life on streaming, but by then the narrative was set: killer premise, killer cast… limping box office.