The Running Man star, Lee Pace, who portrays Evan McCone, spoke to ScreenRant’s Ash Crossan about working with Josh Brolin again. He also revealed the similarities between the dynamics of their characters in the upcoming film and their Guardians of the Galaxy roles.
Pace stated that Evan and Brolin’s character, Dan Killian, in The Running Man, have a very similar relationship to the one that Thanos (Brolin) and Ronan the Accuser (Pace) have in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Much like the upcoming Stephen King adaptation, the Kree warlord in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film essentially just follows the orders of The Mad Titan.
Twice in a row I’m running nasty errands for Josh Brolin. The thing is, this is the second movie as well where we have scenes together and we never see each other on set. We film at different times. We only ever meet at premieres and these things. Very funny.
I love what Josh brings to this character. He brings such a slimy, kind of manipulative energy — he’s just hard to predict what’s truthful. I mean, nothing’s truthful, is the point.
The Running Man is a remake of a film adaptation of Stephen King’s 1982 novel of the same name. It follows the story of Ben Richards (portrayed by Glen Powell), who is in dire need of money. He joins a TV program where the contestants (also known as the Runners) have to survive for 30 days while being chased by assassins. Evan is the leader of the group of killers that Dan hired to hunt down the show’s contestants. Brolin’s character, on the other hand, is the violent, money-hungry producer of the show.
During the exclusive interview, Pace also praised Powell’s dedication to his role and the amount of physical labor he put into the action film as its main protagonist. He explained that his co-star’s powerful performance makes his character one that is worthy of rooting for.
What I love about Glen Powell in this role is that— I mean, what he does, signing up for The Running Man, it’s insane. It actually makes no sense. But there’s something about the character that he brings to it — this sense of, ‘I’m going to put myself in the middle of the mess, and I’m going to be fine. I’ll figure out a way out of this impossible scenario.’ So even though the world is hostile and everyone’s trying to kill him, I’m not worried about him. I just kind of want to see him solve the problem.
The Running Man will be released in theaters on November 14, 2025.