Glen Powell is unrecognizable in the first full-length trailer for his new Hulu comedy Chad Powers. Powell formally debuted the trailer Saturday on ESPN’s College GameDay.
Produced by former star NFL quarterbacks (and current ESPN personalities) Eli and Peyton Manning, Chad Powers sees Powell playing Russ Holliday, a hotshot quarterback who destroyed his playing career after making an unforgivable, vanity-driven mistake in a college football championship game.
Eight years later, he seeks redemption, under heavy makeup and prosthetics and under the pseudonym, Chad Powers.
“South Georgia is having open tryouts? I am going to do a Mrs. Doubtfire, but with football,” Powell says at one point in the trailer (below).
Chad Powers debuts on Hulu Sep. 30 with two episodes. New episodes will stream on Tuesdays for the subsequent four weeks.
The show can trace its origin to a sketch that starred Eli Manning in 2022, in which he put on prosthetics and attended an open tryout at Penn State, with a camera crew capturing the disbelief from other players and attendees.
Eli Manning and Powell spoke to The Hollywood Reporter for this week’s cover story about making the show.
“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 THR. “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.’ “
EManning serves as executive producer along with Omaha Productions’ Peyton Manning, Jamie Horowitz, Ben Brown and ESPN’s Burke Magnus, Brian Lockhart, Kati Fernandez. Waldron and Adam Fasullo are executive producing for Anomaly Pictures. Luvh Rakhe will executive produce and Tony Yacenda will serve as director and executive producer. The series stars Powell, who is also co-creating, co-writing and executive producing under his production co-banner Barnstorm Productions.
