The Long Walk has been heaped with praise in its first social media reactions. The upcoming movie, which was directed by Francis Lawrence (the Hunger Games franchise) from a screenplay by JT Mollner (Strange Darling) is based on a Stephen King novel that follows a ᴅᴇᴀᴅly compeтιтion where teenage boys are forced to walk until only one is left standing.

The upcoming The Long Walk features a star-studded ensemble cast. The young actors playing the walkers include Licorice Pizza‘s Cooper Hoffman, Alien: Romulus‘ David Jonsson, Jojo Rabbit‘s Roman Griffin Davis, Karate KId: Legends‘ Ben Wang, and All the Money in the World‘s Charlie Plummer.

They are joined by a number of notable performers playing the adult characters, including Mark Hamill as the Major, who enforces the rules of the compeтιтion, and Judy Greer as Mrs. Garraty, the mother of Cooper Hoffman’s character.

The embargo has now been lifted on spoiler-free social media reactions to early screenings of The Long Walk, less than a month ahead of the movie’s debut on September 12. Although some critics and journalists had a few issues with the movie, the overall tone is overwhelmingly positive, with viewers almost unilaterally praising the two lead performances.

See select social media reactions below:

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Andrew J. Salazar said that “Francis Lawrence pulls no punches” with the story’s political themes, while “Cooper Hoffman & David Jonsson steal the entire film with grace.“

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In spite of suggesting that it is a little too long, Russ Milheim also praised Hoffman and Jonsson and called The Long Walk “an incredibly harrowing, terrifying, and traumatizing film.“

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Matt Neglia had quibbles about the broadness of Mark Hamill’s performance, but said that the filmmakers have “done the grim book justice” by making the project “hard-R brutal.”

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Chris Gallardo, who also praised Hoffman and Jonsson, said that “it’s Stephen King in the vein of Hunger Games: purely intense.“

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Jacob Fisher promised that “this is one of the most intense & emotional films you’ll watch all year,” also finding time to praise the two young leads.

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Slasher Reviews added that “by the end, I was soaked in my tears.”

What This Means For The Long Walk

Because it was directed by Francis Lawrence, who has directed four of the five extant Hunger Games movies (in addition to helming the upcoming prequel Sunrise on the Reaping), it was perhaps inevitable that the Long Walk movie would spark comparisons to that dystopian young adult franchise.

However, the source novel (which was written using the pseudonym Richard Bachman) was originally published in 1979, many years before the 2008 debut of the original Hunger Games novel and the 1999 publication of the similarly themed Japanese novel Battle Royale.

The fact that the reactions to the Stephen King movie have mentioned the prolific author much more than The Hunger Games would seem to indicate that the movie does indeed evoke his authorial voice rather than mimicking the more recent dystopian franchise.

Our Take On The Long Walk Reactions

I am somewhat surprised that the only mention of Mark Hamill in these early reactions to The Long Walk was to criticize his performance. After his showstopping supporting role in the earlier 2025 Stephen King movie The Life of Chuck, it seemed like Hamill would be delivering another arresting performance as one of the author’s characters.

While other viewers could potentially still find that to be the case, The Long Walk is clearly dominated by the performances of Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson. This is hardly a demerit for the movie, as the young characters are the most important, both to the plot of the novel and to its themes.