Stephen King books have been adapted for decades, and this year is a particularly strong year for the author. Things kicked off with Osgood Perkins’ adaptation of The Monkey, which was released to positive reviews in February. Next month will also see the release of The Life of Chuck, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. The continued adaptation of King’s work shows just how influential the author is, as his work remains timely and relevant.
One of this year’s King adaptations is the dystopian movie The Long Walk. Directed by Francis Lawrence, the movie tells the story of a group of teenage boys who participate in a yearly televised compeтιтion where they must maintain a certain continuous walking speed or risk being eliminated. The movie is set for release on September 12, 2025, and features Ben Wang, Mark Hamill, Garrett Wareing, Judy Greer, David Jonsson, and Cooper Hoffman. The original book also inspired a subsequent dystopian novel and film, which is a good one to check out before The Long Walk.
How Battle Royale Is Indebted To Stephen King’s The Long Walk Book
Battle Royale’s Narrative Has Similar Elements
The book and movie Battle Royale are highly influenced by King’s The Long Walk, making it an interesting film to catch up on before the upcoming adaptation. Battle Royale was originally a Japanese novel by Koushun Takami published in 1999. The book is about a group of junior high school students in Japan who are made to fight each other to death in a program run by a fictionalized totalitarian version of the government. It was later adapted into the 2000 movie of the same name.
The narrative overlap between Battle Royale and The Long Walk is clear. Both center around the young, teenage victims of overly controlling government regimes who have to participate in some type of “last one standing” event. The Long Walk provides a fascist imagining of the American government, while Battle Royale focuses on a similar environment, but in Japan. Sources such as Polygon have confirmed that Takami took inspiration from King’s writing, further showing the connection between the stories.
In more recent years, Battle Royale has re-entered the cultural zeitgeist due to comparisons between it and The Hunger Games. This link is even more direct, as Suzanne Collins’ novels and subsequent movie adaptations also see teenagers fight to the death. But in reality, the roots of the dystopian story stem back to King, from the first novel he ever wrote. This comparison makes Battle Royale an interesting film to watch before The Long Walk is released this fall.
The Long Walk Will Inevitably Face Battle Royale & Hunger Games Comparisons
And This Is A Tough Standard To Meet
Even though The Long Walk was the first book to be published, the movie adaptations of Battle Royale and The Hunger Games have already been made. As such, the King movie adaptation is sure to get compared to both of these previous works. This sets the bar high for The Long Walk, as both of the other dystopian YA movies were well-received critically. The Hunger Games movies also did incredibly well at the box office and had a relatively recent adaptation with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in 2023.
Another Hunger Games movie is coming out in November 2026, with Sunrise on the Reaping, which will be directed by Francis Lawrence.
The Hunger Games comparisons will also be further heightened because of one key connecting thread: director Francis Lawrence. Lawrence is helming The Long Walk movie, but he also stepped in for four of the five Hunger Games films, beginning with Catching Fire in 2013. This will make critics more apt to compare the movies’ styles, merits, and pitfalls from a filmmaking standpoint, increasing the comparative discourse.
The Long Walk Isn’t 2025’s Only Dystopian Stephen King Movie
The Running Man Is Also Coming Out This Year
Interestingly, The Long Walk is not the only dystopian King project coming out this year. 2025 will also see the release of Edgar Wright’s version of The Running Man, which is about a man who joins a game show where contestants try to evade hunters who are hired to kill them. Unlike The Long Walk, this book has previously been adapted, as Paul Michael Glaser released an adaptation of the story back in 1987. The 2025 version features Glen Powell, Colman Domingo, Josh Brolin, Kate O’Brian, and Jayme Lawson.
The production of The Running Man makes 2025 a truly exciting year for King adaptations. The author is best known for horror, and while both this and The Long Walk certainly have horrific elements, they fall more into the sci-fi dystopia category genre-wise. This will create interesting variety in the King oeuvre, and spawn fascinating discourses as The Long Walk gets compared to the content that it inspired.
Source: Polygon
