Glen Powell has taken over Hollywood one project at a time and now the Twisters star is throwing his next touchdown with Eli Manning. Get it? Because he’s starring in the Hulu series Chad Powers?
The series is based on an Eli Manning sketch from 2022 that featured Manning pretending to be a walk on quarterback during tryouts for Penn State. He was disguised as a man named Chad Powers to try to trick the team into recruiting him and it ended up being one of the funniest things to happen on ESPN. Now, Powell will play Russ Holliday, a disgraced former football star who is trying to make a comeback under a pseudonym: Chad Powers.
Chad Powers is set to premiere starting in September and Manning and Powell spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the series, and how busy Glen Powell is. No really, they talked about how there could have been more episodes but because of Powell’s schedule, there are only 6. He did film this, then The Running Man, and now he’s shooting Ghostwriter for JJ Abrams all while making his own production company and his own condiments brand. Man is busy!
But despite his schedule, he made time for Chad Powers because of how much fun the “lie” of it all was. “What made Eli’s thing so magical is the viewer knew Eli Manning was under [the disguise]. So, let’s use the lie at the center of this thing, which creates inherent fun conflict over the course of the series,” Powell told The Hollywood Reporter. “We were like, ‘OK, we’re going to Tootsie this thing. Let’s Mrs. Doubtfire it, and let’s see how far we can take this lie.’”
Glen Powell’s stacked schedule is a dream (for him)
Powell has been consistently working for the last few years. After the success of Top Gun: Maverick, Powell went on to star in Anyone But You, Hit Man, Twisters, and now he’s working with Edgar Wright and Abrams back to back. He’s working hard and growing as a performer, writer, and producer. But he even said that he’d like to direct one day too.
“That’s something I’d love to do,” he told the outlet. “But right now, I’m getting to be in film school, I’m getting to work with [Richard] Linklater and Lee Isaac Chung and J.J. Abrams and Edgar Wright. I’m working with my heroes. And what’s been really, really fun is — every set I’m on, I pick up things. Whenever that time comes, I’ll be much more prepared.”
While Powell is a busy man, he made time in his schedule for Chad Powers and that says something about the show, if you ask me. So get ready to see how they turned this weird sketch from Manning into a six episode arc when Chad Powers kicks off this September on Hulu!
(featured image: Hulu)
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