Stephen King criticises the “pornographic” violence in superhero films

Stephen King has criticised the depiction of violence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, describing it as “pornographic”.

The writer, who is most adapted living author in cinematic history, was speaking about the extent of the violence in the new film The Long Walk, which is based on his 1979 novel of the same name.

He told The Times that he insisted to screenwriter JT Mollner (Strange Darling) and director Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games) that the young characters in the film, who enter a walking contest in which all but the winner will be executed, must be shown being brutally killed.

“If you look at these superhero movies, you’ll see…some supervillain who’s destroying whole city blocks but you never see any blood,” he explained. “And man, that’s wrong. It’s almost, like, pornographic.”

“I said, if you’re not going to show it [in The Long Walk], don’t bother. And so they made a pretty brutal movie.”

Set in a dystopian United States, the film depicts 100 young men entering an annual walking contest in which they must maintain a speed of at least three miles per hour or they will be killed. The winner is the last remaining walker.

It stars Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson and Charlie Plummer and is released in cinemas on September 12.

It is one of four major King adaptations to be released on the big screen in 2025: The Life Of Chuck, with Tom Hiddleston and Chiwetel Ejiofor, is out now, Osgood Perkins’ horror The Monkey was a hit in the Spring, while Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man is coming on November 7.

This is not the first time that King has spoken about the MCU – in 2023, he criticised people that were piling in on the miserable box office performance of The Marvels, calling it “adolescent fanboy hate”.

“I don’t go to MCU movies, don’t care for them, but I find this barely masked gloating over the low box office for THE MARVELS very unpleasant,” he wrote. “Why gloat over failure?”

Last month, he spoke about his wishes for the end of the Trump presidency. “I think it would be impeachment – which, in my view, would be a good ending. I would love to see him retired, let’s put it that way. The bad ending would be that he gets a third term and takes things over completely. It’s a horror story either way. Trump is a horror story, isn’t he?”

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