Glen Powell playing a charming college athlete named Chad … it just feels right, doesn’t it? The Twisters actor is set to star as a football player in Hulu’s upcoming half-hour comedy Chad Powers. Co-created by Powell and Michael Waldron, the show from 20th Television is based on a popular 2022 sketch in which Eli Manning showed up at Penn State’s walk-on tryouts in disguise. “We’re both diehard college football fans,†Powell and Waldron said in a joint statement when Chad Powers received a series order in February. “When we saw Eli as Chad Powers, we knew that was the way into a big, fun story about this world. We’re excited to be part of this team, and can’t wait to get Chad in the game. Think fast, run fast.†There’s been no word on a release date yet, but so far, we’ve gotten a first-look photo that suggests that Powell could be changing up his look as dramatically as he did for Hit Man, plus casting confirmation of a few other players. Keep checking back as more details touch down.
What’s the plot?
Chad Powers is about a football player in his flop era. Alright, the synopsis doesn’t say that exactly, but he is playing Russ Holliday, a hotshot quarterback whose “bad behavior†has ruined his college career. Whatever he did is apparently serious enough that he feels the need to become an entirely different person, walking onto a “struggling Southern football team†while disguised as the “talented, affable Chad Powers.†For more of a sense of what Powers’s personality might be, you can see how Eli Manning originated the role in the sketch below.
Who else is on the team with Powell?
Deadline’s been busy updating the lineup. Per Deadline, Steve Zahn (The White Lotus) will play head coach Jake Hudson, who could turn things around for himself and his team with Chad Powers’s talent. Perry Mattfeld (In the Dark) will play Ricky, who works as an assistant for her dad’s struggling team and is suspicious of Powers. The full cast also includes Frankie A. Rodriguez as team mascot Danny, Quentin Plair as Coach Byrd, and Wynn Everett as a character called Tricia.
Off the field, Powell and Waldron are also executive producing alongside both Eli and Peyton Manning.
Have we gotten a first look?
Yup. As Powers, it looks like Powell will be rocking long hair, a li’l mustache, and … could that be a prosthetic nose?