Chad Powers Season 2 Release Date Out: There’s something deeply satisfying about watching Glen Powell play against his own image. The guy has spent the last few years becoming one of Hollywood’s most reliable leading men. Top Gun: Maverick, Anyone But You, Hit Man. He’s got the jawline, the charm, the easy confidence that makes movie stars look like they were born to stand in front of a camera. And then there’s Chad Powers, the character that lets him throw all of that out the window and replace it with a wig, a weird accent, and the desperate energy of a man who’s one awkward conversation away from having his entire life fall apart.
Glen Powell built a career-best comedic bit out of a disguise, a bad wig, and a whole lot of nerve, and now he’s putting it all back on the line. The second season of Chad Powers has an official release date, and it’s arriving the same way the first one did: all at once, ready for a single marathon sitting on the couch.
Chad Powers Season 2 Release Date Out: Mark the Date
Season two lands on Hulu on Thursday, September 3, dropping in perfect sync with the U.S. release on Hulu the same day. And just like before, there’s no weekly drip-feed torture involved — Hulu is dumping the entire six-episode run on the platform in one shot, clearly banking on the binge-watch model that worked so well the first time around. If you somehow missed the debut season, there’s still time to catch up before the new one hits, since it remains available to stream in full.
The Premise, Same Trick, Higher Stakes
The setup hasn’t changed: a football player with a ruined reputation reinvents himself under a new identity to get back onto the field, hiding behind a disguise nobody’s supposed to see through. What’s shifting in season two is the pressure. Chad Powers has gone from a desperate long shot to an actual star performer on the pitch — but the version of him that exists off the field keeps doing things that raise eyebrows. Coach Hudson has started noticing. So has Gerry. And the closer people look, the more the whole charade threatens to collapse.
Russ — the real person hiding underneath the Chad Powers persona — is staring down the very real possibility of getting caught. If he and his ally Danny want any shot at surviving the rest of the season intact, let alone pushing their team, the Catfish, all the way to the College Football Playoff, they’re going to need help. The catch is that the one person best positioned to bail them out, Ricky, happens to be the person with the least interest in doing them any favors.
It’s a classic comedic pressure-cooker setup, and it plays directly to what made the show work in the first place: watching someone try to keep an increasingly unstable lie from falling apart while everyone around them slowly closes in.
Who’s Back
The cast returning for round two reads almost identically to the original lineup. Glen Powell reprises his dual role as both Russ Holliday and his football alter ego, Chad Powers — a part that leans heavily on his ability to send up his own leading-man image, which is a big part of why the bit lands as well as it does. Perry Mattfeld is back as Ricky, Quentin Plair returns as Coach Byrd, Wynn Everett reprises Tricia Yeager, Frankie Rodriguez comes back as Danny, and Steve Zahn once again plays Coach Jake Hudson.
The Reluctant Ally
The most intriguing detail in the season two synopsis is the mention of Ricky, played by Perry Mattfeld. Russ and Danny, his confidant played by Frankie Rodriguez, are going to need help if they want Chad to survive the season and drag the Catfish to the College Football Playoff. The help they need is going to come from Ricky. And Ricky, apparently, is the last person on earth who wants to help them.
This is smart storytelling. One of the risks of a premise like this is that the central deception can start to feel claustrophobic. If it’s just Russ and Danny managing the lie in isolation, the story can only go so many places before it starts to repeat itself. Bringing in a reluctant ally, someone who knows the truth and has her own reasons for being unhappy about it, opens up new dynamics and new sources of tension. Ricky doesn’t want to be part of this. She’s being dragged into it. That resistance is going to generate conflict, and conflict is what keeps a comedy from turning into a series of increasingly strained variations on the same joke.
Mattfeld’s return is also a good sign for the show’s continuity. She was a key part of the first season’s dynamic, and bringing her deeper into the central conspiracy rather than leaving her on the sidelines suggests the writers know which characters have the most potential.
Where the Idea Actually Came From
If the premise sounds a little too specific to be entirely made up, that’s because it isn’t, exactly. The show traces its roots back to a segment on Eli’s Places, the ESPN program produced under Omaha Productions. Glen Powell and Michael Waldron are credited as the creators who turned that kernel of an idea into a full series, with former NFL quarterback Eli Manning attached as an executive producer from the start. New for season two: his brother Peyton Manning has joined the producing team as well, adding another layer of football pedigree behind the scenes.
The broader producing group is sizable. Alongside the Manning brothers, Jamie Horowitz and Ben Brown represent Omaha Productions, while Burke Magnus, Brian Lockhart, and Craig Lazarus are attached on behalf of ESPN. Powell also produces through his own Barnstorm Productions banner, alongside his producing partner Dan Cohen. Waldron and Adam Fasullo executive produce under Anomaly Pictures, and Luvh Rakhe rounds out the list of executive producers. The series itself is produced by 20th Television.
Why It’s Worth Paying Attention To
What made Chad Powers click in its first outing wasn’t just the sports-comedy framing — it was Glen Powell fully committing to a bit that could have easily felt gimmicky in lesser hands. He’s become one of the industry’s most in-demand leading men over the past couple of years, and there’s something genuinely fun about watching an actor at that stage of his career lean into something this silly and self-aware. Season two seems designed to raise the tension around the show’s central lie without losing that sense of humor, which is a tricky balance for any comedy trying to build toward something resembling stakes.
For anyone looking for something light, six episodes deep, and built for a single evening of watching, the timing lines up well. Just circle September 3 — and maybe clear your schedule for that night.
Why the Show Works
The central joke of Chad Powers is funny on its own terms. A grown man puts on a bad wig and a fake persona and somehow becomes a football star. The physical comedy is there. The absurdity is there. But what makes the show more than just a sketch extended to series length is the way it plays with identity and second chances. Russ Holliday destroyed his own career. He made mistakes. He lost everything. Chad Powers is his way of starting over, of being someone who hasn’t already ruined his life. The tragedy underneath the comedy is that Chad isn’t real. He’s a performer. And the longer the performance goes on, the more Russ has to confront the fact that the second chance he’s getting isn’t actually his. He’s borrowing someone else’s life.
Season two seems to be leaning into that tension. Chad is a star now. The thing Russ wanted, the thing he created this entire charade to achieve, is happening. But it’s happening to Chad, not to Russ. The success is real, but the person receiving it is a fiction. That’s a genuinely interesting emotional predicament, and it’s the kind of thing that can give a broad comedy enough depth to sustain multiple seasons.
The Binge Model
All six episodes dropping at once is a vote of confidence in the show’s structure. This isn’t a mystery that benefits from week-to-week speculation. It’s a farce that builds momentum. The lies pile up. The close calls get closer. The walls close in. Watching it in one sitting lets the audience feel the accumulation of pressure in a way that weekly releases would dissipate. By the time the finale arrives, assuming the show sticks the landing, the release should feel like a release.
September 3 is not that far away. The first season is already streaming for anyone who needs to catch up. Glen Powell is about to spend another season running around in a wig, pretending to be someone he’s not, while the Mannings produce from above and Steve Zahn squints suspiciously in the background. It’s a weird show. It’s a funny show. It knows exactly what it is. And sometimes that’s all you need.