In 2017, he played the antagonist The Colonel in the science fiction film "War for the Planet of the Apes". Also that year, he starred in "The Glass Castle," an adaptation of Jeannette Walls's memoir about how she was raised by dysfunctional and nonconformist parents and then had her world turned upside down when they moved to New York to be near her. Brie Larson played Walls and Harrelson played her father. The comedic drama was directed by Destin Daniel Cretton.