We are in the midst of one of the biggest years of all time for new Stephen King adaptations. In February, audiences were delighted to experience the madness of Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey; Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck and Edgar Wright’s The Running Man are both set to hit theaters in the coming months; and on the small screen, both HBO’s IT: Welcome To Derry and MGM+’s The Institute are set to premiere before December. That’s a hell of a lot, but now the slate has gotten even more exciting with the addition of Francis Lawrence’s The Long Walk.
Lionsgate hosted its presentation this morning at CinemaCon – the annual Las Vegas-based convention for theater owners – and among the awesome news shared is that The Long Walk, based on the book of the same name, is going to arrive in theaters everywhere on September 12. The film completed production last year and Stephen King fans have spent months waiting for release date news, so this is a terrifically exciting development. It should be one hell of a hardcore cinematic experience.
Originally published under Stephen King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman, The Long Walk is a dystopian novel that centers on a grueling, deadly competition. Teenagers from around the country gather as participants in the contest – which is essentially a death march. Walking along a long stretch of highway, they have to spend days walking at a constant pace. If they slow down or stop, they get a warning, and if they get three warnings within an hour (or try to escape), they are shot dead by soldiers. The last kid standing wins the prize of their dreams.
JT Mollner, who wrote and directed the critically acclaimed horror film Strange Darling in 2024, wrote the screenplay, and the impressive ensemble cast of The Long Walk includes Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Roman Griffin Davis, Jordan Gonzalez, Josh Hamilton, with Judy Greer, and Mark Hamill.
The new release date for the thriller puts it on the release calendar between The Life Of Chuck (which will be released by Neon in the summer) and The Running Man, which will be in theaters on November 7.
The Long Walk should be one hell of a thing to witness on the big screen, as this is an adaptation that many filmmakers have tried and failed to make – including legends George A. Romero and Frank Darabont. When Stephen King read the script, his reaction was. “This is great, but they’ll never fucking make this,” but Lionsgate gave it the green light. JT Mollner has promised that the film won’t be pulling any punches from the horrifying source material and has described it as a “disturbing and somewhat controversial movie.” I’m beyond excited to see it.
This is just one of the exciting bits of news to come out of the Lionsgate presentation at CinemaCon, and CinemaBlend is on the ground covering the event all week. Be on the lookout for more news and updates about the 2025 movie release schedule, and for all of the latest developments in the world of Stephen King, be sure to check out my weekly column The King Beat, which goes live here on the site every Thursday.
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