Stephen King's New R-Rated Dystopian Thriller Adaptation Is Now Officially A Streaming Hit

1 hour ago 2

David Jonsson as Peter McVries in The Long Walk

Abigail is an editor for ScreenRant, currently writing and editing movie news. You may also have seen her thoughts on animated television, musical theater, and fantasy literature in Paste Magazine, Fantasy Hive, or The Oxford Blue. She has also written SR lists and op-eds covering movies, TV, and books as well. She is an English major through and through, having graduated with a B.A. from UC Santa Barbara and an MPhil from Oxford University.

2025's The Long Walk, based on Stephen King's famous dystopian novel, is now a streaming hit after a successful theatrical run. Directed by Francis Lawrence, The Long Walk stars Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Ben Wang, Charlie Plummer, Judy Greer, and Mark Hamill, following a chilling competition where teenage boys attempt to walk as long as they can without stopping, and are shot if they fail.

The Long Walk debuted with an incredible Rotten Tomatoes score, which has since settled at 88% among critics, against 84% from audiences. The movie also grossed just under $63 million worldwide, a decent success for an R-rated horror, and a profitable one when it was made on the relatively small budget of $20 million. Now, viewers are revisiting The Long Walk at home.

As of today, January 13, The Long Walk is the No. 3 movie in the U.S. on Starz. It is behind only 2024's Greedy People at No. 2, and 2005's Get Rich or Die Tryin' at No. 1. As The Long Walk debuted on streaming only a few days ago (on January 10), it could still climb the charts and hit No. 1 this week, as the newest title among this selection.

Meanwhile, the cast of The Long Walk is cropping up in various high-profile Hollywood movies. Francis Lawrence is known for his work in the dystopian genre, as the director of several installments of the Hunger Games franchise. He is helming the forthcoming The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, which will star The Long Walk's Ben Wang, among others.

Ben Wang, Cooper Hoffman, and the ensemble walking in The Long Walk

Cooper Hoffman, who plays The Long Walk's de facto protagonist, is also known for Licorice Pizza and Saturday Night, and is set to reunite with his former co-star David Jonsson in the star-studded The Chaperones. Jonsson, meanwhile, broke out in the last few years with his memorable performance in Alien: Romulus, a role which he is set to reprise. Jonsson is also known for starring in Industry.

King began writing The Long Walk while he was in high school, making it his first-ever novel, though not the first one he published. He eventually released it under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. The Long Walk is joined by The Monkey, The Running Man, and It: Welcome to Derry in the line-up of Stephen King adaptations released last year.

If you missed The Long Walk last year, you can check out the critically acclaimed dystopian thriller on Starz now.