Glen Powell is making a return to live-action television nine years after starring as Chad Radwell in Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens, and coincidentally, he’s playing another Chad. The Hit Man actor will be starring as disgraced college football quarterback Russ Holiday, who disguises himself as the titular Chad Powers to start over as a player on a new college team. The series, premiering soon on the 2025 TV schedule, is based on Eli Manning’s character created for a sketch on ESPN+’s Eli’s Places. Now, Chad Powers’ co-creator is explaining why it was so important to have the NFL star heavily involved.
Manning serves as an executive producer on Chad Powers and even tried to help Powell with some football technique. Even though he wasn’t all that impressed with his throw at first, Manning had a lot of complimentary things to say about the show, but that shouldn't come as a surprise. The series, streaming on September 30 with a Hulu subscription, is based on his own character, as co-creator Michael Waldron told EW:
It'd be hard to do the show based on Eli's sketch without having Eli in it. I wasn't trying to draw the ire of that guy. So we knew we had to find a place for Eli in the show somewhere. We thought we did that in a really fun way... and there's one or two other ones that we think are pretty fun.
Of course, having a two-time Super Bowl MVP attached to the show may be a bit intimidating, but it really was the only way to make sure that Chad Powers was done right. And there was no one better to have on the sidelines than the man himself. It seemed to have been a good thing, too, because he was right in the middle of all of the action, as Waldron explained:
He helped me build confidence because I'd be like, 'Oh s---, Eli Manning likes this.' We're doing right by Eli, which felt really good. He actually sat in with our writers' room one day and just let us pepper him with questions about what's a Tuesday look like for a college quarterback?
When a show or movie is being made that is based on a pre-existing person, story or property, producers, writers, and the cast will oftentimes try to make it accurate and true to the source. On medical shows, they sometimes bring in experts, consultants, and actual doctors. In Chad Powers’ case, they brought in Manning since the show is based on his character and he's literally a professional football player.
It’s so great knowing how involved he was and seeing how much he cares, especially since he’s helping tell much more of the story than what people usually see, even despite initially trolling the Top Gun: Maverick star:
We just see these guys on TV for three hours on Saturdays, but we're telling a story about all the hours before and after that, and Eli helped us kind of fill out those days.
At this point, even with Manning’s involvement, there’s no telling how Chad Powers will go. However, the series is already getting compared to Ted Lasso, and while the projects are notably quite different, that's great company to be in.
Luckily, fans won’t have to wait long to see how the show turns out. The first two episodes of Chad Powers will premiere on Tuesday, September 30, followed by weekly drops until the season finale on October 28. There will be a lot to look forward to, especially with Eli Manning attached to it..
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