With recent starring roles in disaster movie blockbuster Twisters, cool-as-you-like Richard Linklater joint Hit Man, and Sydney Sweeney rom-com Anyone But You, Glen Powell is one of the most instantly recognisable stars in Hollywood right now. And yet, in the first image from his upcoming co-written, co-created, and self-starring half-hour college football comedy series Chad Powers, Powell is virtually unrecognisable (and not in a Leonardo DiCaprio actually-very-recognisable Killers Of The Flower Moon way either.) Check out the full transformational shot of Powell below:
It's as if Tom Cruise and David Arquette were somehow merged together in a lab, ain't it? Based on the eponymous sketch character from Eli Manning's ESPN+ docuseries Eli's Place, in which the NFL legend donned a tonne of prosthetics to fool some unsuspecting college football hopefuls, Chad Powers — an eight-episode, half-hour Hulu comedy co-written by Powell and MCU alum Michael Waldron — will see Powell play a quarterback who goes to extreme lengths to get his career back on track. Or, as the official to-the-point logline reads: "When bad behavior nukes hotshot QB Russ Holliday’s college career, he disguises himself and walks onto a struggling Southern football team as the talented, affable Chad Powers.”
Having dabbled in disguises before with the aforementioned Hit Man, and played a college student in Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!!, Powell — a self-professed diehard college football fan — is well placed to lead Chad Powers. And with more high profile roles in films like Edgar Wright's The Running Man and J.J. Abrams' secret new blockbuster looming on Powell's horizon, a low-stakes comedy with a broadly _Ted Lasso_ian origin (ie, a sports sketch character given the full series treatment) will be an exciting change of pace for the in-demand Top Gun: Maverick breakout.
Will Chad Powers be another touchdown for Powell? Or will his and Michael Waldron's Hulu-bound comedy fall apart in the end zone? With the series' production well underway, it doesn't look like we'll be having to wait too long to find out either way. Think fast, run fast!