LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Glen Powell couldn’t recall seeing many shows about college football, so creating sports comedy series “Chad Powers” felt like a huge win.
“I always try to look for where the gaps in an audience are, where the gaps in the marketplace are,” the “Top Gun Maverick” actor told Reuters.
“As a fan of college football, I've never seen a show that sort of embodies what that spirit is and the environment around it,” he added.
The Hulu series created by Powell and “Rick and Morty” creator Michael Waldron, follows Powell as a disgraced college football player named Russell Holliday, who disguises himself as a Southern rookie walk-on football player named Chad Powers.
The story is based on a 2022 ESPN sketch starring real-life football player Eli Manning as the fictional college football player, Chad Powers.
The series also stars Steve Zahn, Toby Huss, Perry Mattfeld, Clayne Crawford and Wynn Everett and arrives on the streaming platform on Tuesday.
For Waldron, the series isn’t just about football, it’s about a flawed character’s redemption.
“He's (Russell) a guy who made mistakes, made big mistakes, and the world hates him for it, and he's decided he hates himself too,” the “Loki” series creator said.
“His only way out of that isn't to try and fix himself or forgive himself. He says, ‘I'm going to reinvent myself, be a different guy,’ and in the process, maybe gets a little bit closer to forgiving the real Russ Holliday by playing Chad Powers,” Waldron added, noting that Russell’s path to redemption is no easy journey.
Powell felt like it was a gift to work with both Eli and Payton Manning on the show to make the football experience even more authentic.
“They were so available to us throughout this whole process, which is like a gift,” Powell said.
“We wanted this to be a cinematic, badass football show that everyone who was a fan of college football, professional football, who just likes it or is just interested in it, to recognize it, and go, ‘Wow, that's the real deal,’” the “Hit Man” actor added.
(Reporting by Danielle Broadway and Jane Ross; Editing by Kim Coghill)
