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The surprising story of Christopher Reeve’s abandoned lead role in Running Man — and how Arnold Schwarzenegger changed everything

When Christopher Reeve was signed on to star in The Running Man, the story was more dour than the Arnold Schwarzenegger film

Features by Jules Chin Greene, Staff Writer

Published on Mon Nov 17 2025

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All week long: Revisit the highlights and lowlights of 1987 with Popverse's Made in 87 week.

Christopher Reeve may be Superman to generations of pop culture fans, but he nearly starred in the original film adaptation of The Running Man from 1987. The role, as you might remember, went to Arnold Schwarzenegger - a name you wouldn't necessarily think to use in the same breath as Christopher Reeve. Where Reeve was a Juilliard-trained theatre actor-turned-Superman, Schwarzenegger embodied a more physical sense of masculinity, with his huge muscles and monotone line delivery. The same year that The Running Man came out, Schwarzenegger starred in one of his most iconic roles as the lead in Predator, permanently cementing him in the "dudes rock" cinematic canon.

Now, if you've seen Schwarzenegger's Running Man movie, you might be wondering what the hell a sensitive actor like Christopher Reeve would be doing in a film where the lead character says, "I'll live to see you eat that contract. But I hope you leave enough room for my fist because I'm going to ram it into your stomach and break your goddamn spine." Christopher Reeve may have been Superman, but it's a step too far to imagine him anywhere near verbal threats of violence you'd expect from a Mortal Kombat tournament.

But that's because the original incarnation of the 1987 Running Man film bore some significant differences from its final version. After all, the story is adapted from Stephen King's novel of the same title, which he published under the pen name Richard Bachman. The October 23, 1986 issue of L.A. Weekly broke down what changed about the film between when Reeve dropped out and Schwarzenegger signed on:

"King's story describes a dark, depressing future world in which his jobless protagonist decides to feed his starving family by going on a violent TV game show where he must survive persecution by a group of anonymous assassins for 30 days... [Screenwriter Steven] De Souza, taking inspiration from the gladiator epic Spartacus, glitzed up the future, compressed the time frame to three hours, made his gladiator hero a condemned but innocent criminal, created larger-than-life-celebrity-villains, and added a dash of romance and a happy ending. 'We wanted to make totalitarianism entertaining,' says De Souza. 'With Reeve and [director George Pan] Cosmatos, the movie was more allegorical. Now it's more literal.'"

In 1987, the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon debuted - and all our lives were changed. Watch this reunion of the original voice actors:

To be fair, an aspect from King's original book that remained intact in the theatrical version of the film was protagonist Ben Richards' dry sense of humor. Schwarzenegger nails this in the film. Richards in the book isn't exactly a squeaky-clean character either: he's definitely got an anti-social streak running through him (sorry). That nuance is part of what makes King such an engaging writer to read, because at once, you're on Ben's side because class warfare is no joke, but at the same time, his line of thinking can make you wonder whether you'd be comfortable letting him into your own home. It's hard to imagine Reeve, who became the face of "goodness" in pop culture as Superman, occupying that moral nuance in a studio film. It's far easier to play into the frightening aspects of Schwarzenegger.

Now, The Running Man has once again been adapted to the screen, this time with Glen Powell starring as Ben Richards and Edgar Wright directing. The film is out now in theaters. Perhaps when you go see it, you can do your best to imagine Christopher Reeve as Ben Richards, and see where that takes you.

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Jules Chin Greene: Jules Chin Greene is a journalist and Jack Kirby enthusiast. He has written about comics, video games, movies, and television for sites such as Nerdist, AIPT, and Multiverse of Color.