It’s still outrageous to think that John Carpenter’s Escape from New York celebrated its 45th anniversary this year. The film has become a cult classic and must-watch for action fans, while its lead character, Snake Plissken, is easily one of the greatest movie characters of all time. However, much like everything in Hollywood, it isn’t immune to the remake treatment. Now, the question isn’t whether Escape from New York deserves a reboot; it’s who’s going to play Snake Plissken.
Escape from New York was an epic action movie in which the ex-military convict Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is sent to Manhattan to rescue the president of the United States (Donald Pleasence) who has been stranded in the city which has been converted to a maximum security prison. Along the way, he meets characters like Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine), Harold ‘Brain’ Hellman (Harry Dean Stanton), Hauk (Lee Van Cleef), Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau), The Duke of New York (Isaac Hayes), and Rehme (Tom Atkins). Criminals own half of the city, while crazies and guards own the rest.
Zack Snyder Is Now the One Steering the Reboot
In 2019, the news broke that screenwriter Leigh Whannell would be writing the script for an Escape from New York reboot, and that Alex Heineman and Andrew Rona would be producing the film alongside Radio Silence. It was also announced that Scream filmmakers Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Chad Villella were set to direct the reboot. The intention was made crystal clear: retain what worked in the original but add something unique in the process. Considering that Kurt Russell is 75 years old now, it’s obvious that there will be a need for a new Snake Plissken here. (Though, Russell would certainly be an excellent choice to play the role of Hauk in a reboot.)
Unfortunately, Whannell’s version never went anywhere. The reboot of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York has been through several would-be directors since (including Len Wiseman, Brett Ratner, and Robert Rodriguez), but none of them actually got it to the screen.
In June 2026, however, it was announced that Zack Snyder would write and direct a full reimagining, with Carpenter staying on board as executive producer. But at this point, there’s no cast confirmed, and there’s still no word on whether the new film will return to Manhattan Island Prison or reinvent the premise entirely. Most importantly, they haven’t cast Snake yet.
Why Wyatt Russell Is Still the Fan-Favorite Pick For Snake Plissken
For most fans, it’s difficult to imagine anyone else but Russell as Snake. It’s the same feeling as if there was a new Rambo who wasn’t named Sylvester Stallone—it’d be weird. That being said, there is a solution for the Escape from New York reboot that makes a lot of sense and won’t rock the applecart too much: cast Wyatt Russell as Snake Plissken.
At 40, Wyatt is now ten years older than his father was when he appeared in Escape from New York — Kurt was 30 when the film hit theatres in 1981. More importantly, he’s a dead ringer for his father in terms of both looks and on-screen presence. Many fans commented on how much Wyatt sounded and acted like his father in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Some even joked that Kurt had done the ADR for his son here!
While Wyatt isn’t quite in the mega-star category that his father was, he has been making a name for himself in the movie biz since his hockey career was cut short in 2010. He hasn’t relied on his family’s recognised name and influence, choosing to carve his own path and show off his action credentials in the likes of Overlord and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
“[Mother, Goldie Hawn, and father, Kurt Russell] did a really good job of making us understand that what you get is earned, not given, and that there’s reward in earning it,” Wyatt told the Off Camera podcast, reaffirming that he believes he needs to prove himself as an actor.
He might not need to prove anything in Escape from New York, though, since he already has experience with the franchise, having an uncredited cameo as an orphan in 1996’s Escape from L.A., the sequel to the first film (not to be mistaken with Big Trouble in Little China). Snake Plissken was a role that defined his father’s career, and history could repeat itself here. As much as he might try to do things his own way, he could very well be the best person to carry on the legacy now.
The Role Wyatt Russell Once Called ‘Career Suicide’
While Wyatt would be great, there’s one huge hiccup. In 2021, he told Esquire that stepping into his father’s most famous role would be “career suicide 101,” calling it “like what not to do.” To be fair, at the time, he was still building his own identity as an actor beyond being Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn’s son. If he had taken on the iconic role back then, it might not have worked out so well.
But now, five years later, Wyatt has made a name for himself. He’s set to return as John Walker / U.S. Agent in Avengers: Doomsday, and he’s spent the past few years proving he can carry a film. Playing Snake Plissken in 2026 wouldn’t read the same way it might have in 2021.
He’s Already Played a Young Kurt Russell On Screen
On Apple TV+’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Wyatt plays the younger version of Lee Shaw – the character Kurt Russell plays in the present-day timeline. Father and son sharing a single role across the same show is about as close to a dry run for a Snake Plissken handoff as Hollywood could design, and it’s already proof the resemblance works on screen.
Whether Snyder ends up making the call is anyone’s guess. He’s currently wrapping post-production on The Last Photograph before turning his attention to Escape from New York. But between the look, the voice, the family connection, and now a shift in how willing Wyatt Russell seems to lean into his father’s legacy, the fan campaign to cast him as Snake Plissken just got a lot harder to ignore.
