The Long Walk trailer sets up next fatal competition from Hunger Games director

The Long Walk is based on the first novel Stephen King ever wrote.

By Emma Keates  |  May 7, 2025 | 12:34pm
Photo: Murray Close/Lionsgate
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Stephen King has become a franchise “like Marvel or something,” as the prolific author correctly characterized himself in a recent interview with Vanity Fair. There are a lot of adaptations currently churning away in the King cottage industry. (You can find a rundown here.) But while there are killer dogs and running men just around the corner, perhaps none of the coming adaptations are as risky as The Long Walk, Francis Lawrence’s take on King’s first-penned novel.

The Long Walk is extremely, extremely bleak—even for a guy who regularly dabbles in zombified kids and killer clowns. The concept is simple: in a dystopian society, young men sign up for a walk with no destination. It goes on for miles and miles with no rest allowed for any reason. If they stop or slow down, they get a bullet in the head. While participants can attempt to help each other, the last man left standing wins riches beyond his wildest dreams (and the privilege to keep on breathing). The whole thing is filmed for the benefit of the blood-thirsty and entertainment-starved nation, of course.

If anyone knows about last-man-standing child competitions, it’s Francis Lawrence, who has helmed the majority of the Hunger Games franchise. While comparisons are inevitable, Lawrence told VF that he “[doesn’t] want this to feel like The Hunger Games.” While those films are concerned with the larger society that birthed their central, horrific challenge, The Long Walk has a narrower scope. The camera mostly stays on the road with the walkers and the violence is much more explicit, the outlet teases. “I’m really only interested in the emotional value of it. You want that impact,” Lawrence said. 

That means audiences will spend a lot of time with both Cooper Hoffman, who stars as the kind-hearted Ray Garraty, and David Jonsson, who plays Peter McVries, the walk’s fit front-runner. We’ll also have to contend with Mark Hamill (in his second King adaptation after Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck) as the chilling Major tasked with overseeing the walk. Judy Greer will also star.

Start getting your steps in now; The Long Walk premieres in theaters September 12.

 
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