It’s time for marching orders. Lionsgate dropped a new trailer for The Long Walk today during the pic’s Hall H San Diego Comic-Con presentation Friday. Author of the novel that inspired the film Stephen King introduced the clip via video message, alluding to the Vietnam War and drawing attention to how this story came out long before The Hunger Games and Squid Game.
“It’s got some hard bark on it,” King added of the adaptation.
Based on King’s 1979 dystopian horror novel of the same name, The Long Walk takes place in a disillusioned America that is entertained by a competition called The Long Walk— a challenge in which 50 teenage boys walk continuously without rest. As the journey continues, each competitor must keep walking faster than three miles per hour nonstop or risk being killed. The last boy remaining will earn a prize of their choosing.
“I went through the entire book and underlined things that I wanted to keep. We wanted to keep the DNA and themes that Stephen King baked into his original novel. Even though he was writing about specific things at the time, I feel that relevance is generational and wanted to make sure we had that. The beauty, love and the story of friendship along with the brutality of hopelessness and terror,” Mollner said. “We wanted to go all the way. I knew that Stephen King wanted us to go all the way. I knew Lionsgate wanted us to go all the way. If this book got into the wrong hands, studio or filmmakers. It could’ve been neutered. So, I’m very grateful we were able to keep the teeth that the book has.”
The film stars Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza) and David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus) alongside Mark Hamill (Star Wars). Other cast members include Tut Nyuot, Garrett Wareing (Ransom Canyon), Charlie Plummer (Looking for Alaska), Ben Wang (Karate Kid: Legends), Roman Griffin Davis, Jordan Gonzalez, Joshua Odjick, Josh Hamilton and Judy Greer.
Jonsson, Nyuot, Wareing and Hamill participated in a panel with producer Roy Lee and screenwriter JT Mollner to preview the film, which releases in theaters September 12, 2025.
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“The only guarantee you have as a human is that you’re going to die,” Charlie Plummer says in the trailer as a montage of the boys walking and passing dead animals on the road and his character Gary Barkovitch squats down at the back of the procession to adjust his shoes. “And if you’re lucky, you get to choose how you’ll spend those last moments.”
One of the 50 boys starts convulsing on the road, and as Jonsson and Hoffman’s characters walk backwards to see what happens, soldiers have their guns trained on his twitching body before a gunshot rings out.
As Jonsson’s Pete says he keeps hoping that part will get easier, Hoffman’s Raymond Garraty says “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
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“I look at each and every one of you,” Mark Hamill’s strict Major says to the group after a shot of them passing the 100 mile marker. “And I see hope.”
During the panel, Hamill added that he related to the relentless major, the film’s big bad character. He recalled growing up with his dad on a naval base in Japan, where he saw high ranking officers putting soldiers through rigorous paces in the blazing hot sun until some of them vomited and were forced to eat it. “I knew exactly who [my character] is because I saw him firsthand,” Hamill said. “The premise of the film itself is so off-putting. I don’t know if I could see this movie. Much less be in it, but what happened was I read JT’s script and the novel and saw the real heart and soul of the movie —which is the experience of the Walkers in these extraordinary circumstances. And I was blown away.”
Pete says he doesn’t have much to lose, but everything to gain as it looks like the group has narrowed down between him and Hoffman’s Raymond. Hoffman responds, “This is my chance to change things.”
Garrett Wareing in ‘The Long Walk’
Lionsgate
The clip also shows Raymond’s mother, played by Greer, watching as he walks past her, screaming an apology to her as she breaks down sobbing.
“Every moment matters,” Hoffman says. “Especially at the end.”
Things get tense as the competition narrows down between a few of the boys, with Pete and Raymond leaving Nyuot’s Arthur Baker behind after shouldering his wait and helping him along. Then an earlier snapshot of Pete and Raymond with a rainbow stretching out from the end of the road, but the seed of tension is there.
Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games films: Catching Fire, Mockingjay – Pts. 1 & 2, The Ballad of Songbirds And Snakes and Sunrise on the Reaping) directed the adaptation from JT Mollner’s script. Lawrence and star Ben Wang also spoke to the audience via video message as they are currently in production on Lionsgate’s Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, the latest prequel in the franchise based on Suzanne Collins’ newest novel.
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When asked about staying true to King’s terrifying and bleak tone regarding the death of young men, Mollner doubled down on keeping those gut punch moments.
Roy Lee, Steven Schneider and Cameron MacConomy produced the film. This marks the second Stephen King film adaptation to hit theaters in 2025 after The Life of Chuck, in which Hamill also stars alongside Tom Hiddleston.
