Chad Powers was introduced to the world in September 2022 in a sketch starring Eli Manning for Omaha Productions. The premise of the gag was simple: what would walk-on tryouts at Penn State be like for the two-time Super Bowl champion Manning donning a hilarious — if not obvious — disguise?
This fall, the concept of Chad Powers is back, thanks to the co-creator team of Michael Waldron (Loki) and Glen Powell (Twisters). This time, he has an actual story and a new actor behind the makeup.
This new version of Chad Powers hopes to take viewers on a humorous (and likely emotional) journey.
Powell will play Russ Holiday, a college quarterback whose questionable decision-making derails his career and forces him to find an alternate way to keep playing.
Both Waldron and Powell are huge college football fans — the former went to Georgia and the latter is second only to Matthew McConaughey in Texas football fandom — so the partnership was a natural fit.
Despite wanting to work with each other, however, both Waldron and Powell had a similar reaction when pitched the idea of adapting the Manning skit.
“That’s insane. What do you mean?” Waldron said in a recent interview with For The Win. “What do you mean, adapt that? Then, as we really started thinking about it, we actually got quite, quite excited.”
With the massive success of Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso, which was based off of a 2013 NBC Sports commercial, it’s not unheard of to extrapolate a small skit into a huge hit. Waldron also mentioned filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller as inspirations — namely for the duo’s work on The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street — in taking something that really shouldn’t work and making it into something people truly love.
Waldron was dedicated to ensuring the actual football in this football show looked good and was as realistic as possible. Chad Powers is being made with the support of ESPN, giving it an extra layer of realism and allowing them to film in places like Sanford Stadium in Athens. Steve Zahn, who plays Powers’ coach in the show, shadowed Kentucky football head coach Mark Stoops.
“It was like, we can’t be the college football show where the college football looks awful. It has to look awesome,” Waldron said. “Our aspiration was, this should be the best football anybody’s ever seen.” The veteran Marvel Studios writer attributed the top-notch football renderings to set consultants, scene choreographers and extras. Oh, and Powell.
“Frustratingly good” is how Waldron described Powell’s football prowess, adding that the Hit Man star worked diligently with trainers and football consultants to look as convincing as possible.
“He’s a super handsome dude, incredibly pleasant. He’s also a great writer. He’s also a terrific writer. His family is lovely,” Waldron said. “Then he’s just got a great arm. I’m like, God, man. Leave some for the for the rest of us.”
Chad Powers is expected to debut this fall on Hulu.
