To make a show like Glen Powell's Chad Powers work, you have to convincingly play a quarterback like New York Giants icon Eli Manning.
Speaking to Front Office Sports, Manning revealed that Powell “throws it well.” However, he put the work in to up his quarterbacking skills. Still, he and his brother, Peyton Manning, would step in and give tips about some of the inner workings of the sport.
“You can tell he’s athletic and played sports,” said Manning. “He worked hard on it. He went to coaches. He has a pretty natural throwing motion. I really talked to him about the other things. Breaking the huddle, at the line of scrimmage, the snap count, the cadence. … Those were the things Peyton and I really got into. If we saw something, we’d be like, ‘Nah, nah, nah, that’s not real.'”
“We know there’s other things you have to Hollywood up. But there’s some things as a quarterback. … We have to make it look like a quarterback,” he continued.
Ultimately, Manning is just “excited for Season 2 to get going.” The second season of Chad Powers is in the works, and it's currently being filmed.
Eli Manning, not Glen Powell, was the creator of Chad Powers
Manning was the origin of the Chad Powers concept. Powell took the original concept and ran with it alongside Michael Waldron. Together, they created Hulu's hit TV show.
In the original sketch from Eli's Places, Manning disguised himself and participated in Penn State's walk-on tryouts. Chad Powers follows a disgraced college football quarterback who has a chance at redemption. He tries to save a struggling college football program disguised as Chad Powers.
The first season premiered on Sept. 30, 2025, and new episodes followed every Tuesday through Oct. 28. Hulu then gave the green light to a second season. Eli and Peyton Manning are producers of the show. Powell and Waldron are as well.
