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Glen Powell Credits Guardians of the Galaxy for His Leading Role on Stephen King Movie
Glen Powell is currently one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood, with a string of high-profile projects that have solidified his leading man status. Powell’s rise to stardom includes memorable roles in the action-packed Top Gun: Maverick, the romantic comedy Anyone But You, and the critically acclaimed Hit Man, which he also co-wrote. Recently, he also headlined the blockbuster sequel Twisters and is set to star in the highly anticipated adaptation of Stephen King’s The Running Man. Despite his impressive resume, Powell surprisingly credits a Marvel Studios film he was not in as a pivotal moment for his career, as he believes that Chris Pratt’s performance in Guardians of the Galaxy fundamentally shifted Hollywood’s perception of a leading man, opening the door for actors who did not fit the traditional mold.
“The jock or the fraternity guy or the very vanilla next-door-neighbor vibes,” Powell remembered his early Hollywood years in an interview with GQ Magazine. “You get cast into these very broad things.” Everything changed in 2014, the year Powell got a minor role in The Expendables 3 while James Gunn released Guardians of the Galaxy in theaters.
“I remember when Chris Pratt broke out in Guardians of the Galaxy,” Powell explained. “There’s no doubt it really helped—not being brooding or dark. Like, I’m not Christian Bale. Christian Bale has a gravitas and a weight, and Pattinson had his thing. And when Pratt kind of appeared on the scene where he was doing things that were a little more silly and buoyant, that’s where I feel most at home. And that’s where I feel like I had a gear that is a necessary flavor in terms of Hollywood, and not a gear that a lot of guys can play.”
Guardians of the Galaxy was a significant turning point for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film, centered on a group of intergalactic criminals, was a critical and commercial success, praised for its humor, soundtrack, and action sequences. It demonstrated that audiences were eager for superhero stories that were not afraid to be irreverent and fun, expanding the genre beyond the more serious tones that had dominated up to that point. It also helped Powell to pursue his prolific acting career, which is finally leading him to The Running Man.
The Running Man Remakes a Classic Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie
The upcoming version of The Running Man promises a starkly different experience from the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger classic. Directed by Edgar Wright, the new film is being positioned as a more faithful adaptation of Stephen King’s 1982 novel, which was published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Powell will step into the role of Ben Richards, a man living in a dystopian future who, out of desperation to afford medicine for his sick daughter, volunteers for a deadly televised game show. This premise aligns closely with the source material, suggesting a grittier and more character-driven story than the previous adaptation.
The 1987 film The Running Man, directed by Paul Michael Glaser, was a quintessential piece of 80s action cinema. It transformed King’s bleak narrative into a vehicle for Schwarzenegger’s larger-than-life persona, casting Richards as a wrongly convicted police officer. The movie became famous for its satirical take on American consumer culture, its colorful cast of costumed assassins known as “Stalkers,” and its memorable one-liners. While it touched on themes from the novel, the film’s primary focus was on explosive action and spectacle, culminating in a triumphant ending that stands in direct opposition to the novel’s famously grim conclusion.
The Running Man is scheduled to be released in theaters on November 14, 2025.
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