Will Poulter’s first big role was as Eustace Scrubb in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) and in 2013 he gained mainstream recognition from his role in We’re the Millers and features in Rizzle Kick’s music video for ‘Skip To The Good Bit’. He is having quite a busy 2025 with the release of Death of a Unicorn, Warfare and making his return to Black Mirror in the episode ‘Plaything’.
One of his most well-known roles is of course Gally in The Maze Runner (2014), a film adaptation of the book series by the same name. Poulter’s character Gally is a Glader and the antagonist of the first movie. Gally is arrogant and creates a lot of obstacles for the main character. Poulter also appears in the third instalment of the franchise wherein his character has his redemption arc. In a 2014 interview for Cineworld, Poulter revealed that when he had auditioned for the role, he had read neither the books nor the script, however, he did later read both and did a great job at bringing Gally to life. His performance was rewarded by him winning the MTV award for Best Fight.
My personal favourite role of Poulter was in Black Mirror’s interactive film Bandersnatch where he played Colin Ritman, computer programmer at the fictional company Tuckersoft (which reappears in later Black Mirror episodes). Poulter’s character is quite meta as he is somewhat aware of him being a character and that this is a film. Poulter is one of the few actors to have made a return to Black Mirror as he reprises his Bandersnatch character in the series 7 episode ‘Plaything’.
Warfare (2025) was released on the 18th April with a stacked cast including, Will Poulter, Charles Melton, Kit Connor, Joseph Quinn and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai. The film is an adaptation of Ray Mendoza’s memories of his Navy Seals group during the Iraq War. While filming, the actors all underwent rigorous training as well as having to live together throughout in order to create a realistic brother-in-arms bond between them. Poulter plays Erik who is the Officer in Charge, who must deal with the overwhelming responsibility and the fact that he may not be as good a leader as he thought. This role brings a new intensity to Poulter’s acting that we have yet to see from him.
With a new project I Love Boosters in the works I hope we will be seeing a lot more of Will Poulter very soon.