No gameshow achieves notoriety without a stellar host. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire blossomed under the anchorage of Chris Tarrant. American institution Jeopardy! has had multiple iconic answer-givers (technically, the answers are the questions) over the decades. And what would The Chase be without Bradley Walsh? In The Running Man, the titular gameshow – a brutal human-hunting nightmare, where you survive 30 days to win a shedload of cash – has its own MC, Bobby T, played in Edgar Wright’s new adaptation by the legendary Colman Domingo. And in the film’s first trailer, he proved a bombastic presence, barking, “This is America, goddamnit! And we don’t put up with no bullshit!”
As Domingo sees it, the film’s satirical world really isn’t far from our own. “I don’t think we have to look too far away from being in a dystopian society,” he tells Empire. “That’s why there’s such a great need for a film like this.” While the emphasis is on big thrills – following Glen Powell’s contestant Ben Richards as he tries to win the game, with the entire world hunting him down – there’s something serious underpinning all the carnage. “It’s going to be entertaining, but it makes you think about the kind of world we want to live in,” says Domingo, “and where we need to possibly press ‘pause’, to save our souls.”
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Domingo only joined the production for a week – during which he received a BAFTA nomination for Sing Sing. For Powell, around whom the entire story revolves, he was a welcome addition to the roster of supporting characters he got to encounter across shooting. “I never felt alone,” says Powell. “I felt like I was getting a new friend every couple of weeks. It always felt like a new chapter of the story.” After all, what is a gameshow without a contestant and a host?