If you're trying to make a list of the most bankable new stars of cinema, and you put an age limit of around 40 years old on it, to see who's really part of a new generation of powerful names, Glen Powell has to feature on it. Over the last few years he's gone from a fun background name to a leading actor, with a string of big hits – and now he's in a new Hulu and Disney+ series that looks like it could be supreme fun.
Chad Powers will star Powell as an aspiring college football (the American type, on this occasion) player called Russ Holliday whose plans go up in flames when his selfish attitude throws a championship or game for his team. He's forced into something of a life reset, but can't let the sport go, and comes up with a genuinely zany plan to get back into the game.
Inspired by the classic movie Mrs Doubtfire, Holliday decides to go to a combine to get himself picked by a team under a false name, with makeup and prosthetics to make him look as unrecognisable as he can manage. His new persona is called Chad Powers, and is a kindhearted soul from West Virginia who just so happens to be unbelievably talented at throwing a pigskin.
He manages to get into a team, and from there the game is all about consistency, both in terms of on-field performance and off-field acting. After all, the more attention you attract for your impressive sporting abilities, the more interviews and scrutiny you come under, and Holliday is clearly going to have his work cut out for him when it comes to getting through these.
It looks like Powell will be using his charm to the max, and his comic timing, too – something that he's already shown off in movies like Hit Man and Anyone But You. In fact, the disguises in Hit Man make it sort of a fit with this new series, in a funny sort of way, and should demonstrate that Powell is able to swing for the fences when he needs a fun performance.
The show's a Hulu production but that means, as we're familiar with by now, that it'll hit Disney+ at no extra cost here in the UK, which is always a welcome little boost. It's a great example of the sort of show that Disney+ needs, in my opinion, to make it stand out as more than just a destination for Marvel and Star Wars properties.
