Lee Pace

In The Running Man (2025), Lee Pace stands still and says little. As lead Hunter Evan McCone, he is another imposing figure in a career that has found plenty of uses for his height and voice. We were frustrated by the thinness of the part: Edgar Wright has cast him, then barely let him speak. The film's first hour is good fun, but the action starts repeating itself and the satire stays shallow. For all the promise of that casting, this is a limited reason to watch Pace.

The route to such parts was not a straight run of villains. Soldier's Girl (2003) brought his breakthrough, and Ned in Pushing Daisies (2007–2009) established him as a television lead in fantasy comedy. Thranduil in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy (2012–2014) and Ronan in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) made more obvious use of his ability to look and sound formidable. We understand the attraction for directors, though repeated casting of this kind can make an actor's work seem narrower than it is. Alongside those parts came Joe MacMillan, the ambitious tech visionary of Halt and Catch Fire (2014–2017), before Brother Day in Foundation (2021–).

The difficulty is not always his to solve. Practical Magic 2 (2026), in which he plays Ian Wright, is a poor place to look for evidence of what he can do. Susanne Bier's sequel leaves even Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman's convincing sisterhood struggling against a muddled, overlong story. Sam Williams's editing crowds the conversations without getting the plot moving, while Simon Duggan's jewel colours can make the surroundings look too carefully arranged. These are substantial reasons to pass on the film, however much we might want to see him.

We remain more interested in the actor who can move from Ned to Joe MacMillan than in another opportunity to dress him as a threat. We would like the fantasy and action parts to give him more to say and more choices to make. Start with the longer commitment of Halt and Catch Fire, rather than the thin part in The Running Man.