Glen Powell Is Back as Chad Powers — But His Biggest Problem Isn’t Football! Hulu’s Wild Comedy Returns for Season 2
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Reel Persepctives
September 4, 2026
Football, fake identities, romance and plenty of chaos are back in the game as Hulu’s hit comedy Chad Powers returns for Season 2, with Glen Powell once again stepping into the ridiculous — and surprisingly lovable — disguise of former quarterback Russ Holliday. After transforming himself into the eccentric Chad Powers and walking onto the struggling South Georgia Catfish, Russ managed to turn his bizarre scheme into a legitimate football comeback, but now that Chad is becoming a star on the field, keeping Russ Holliday hidden is becoming a whole lot harder.
When we last saw Russ, his decision to reinvent himself as Chad Powers had gone from desperate scheme to legitimate comeback story. The former quarterback managed to walk onto the struggling South Georgia Catfish, prove that he could still play, and start making a name for himself on the field. That sounds like great news, right? Well, not exactly. The better Chad becomes, the more attention he gets, and the more attention he gets, the harder it becomes for Russ to keep anyone from figuring out who he really is.
The official Season 2 logline teases that “Chad Powers is a superstar on the field but his odd behavior off it has everyone suspicious – especially Coach Hudson and Gerry.” In other words, Russ' little secret isn't exactly staying little anymore. He's trying to help the Catfish make a serious run toward the College Football Playoff while also making sure nobody looks too closely at the man underneath the Chad Powers disguise.
That's what makes this season so much fun. In the first season, Russ was trying to prove that he still belonged in football. Now he's actually becoming a star, which creates a completely different problem. Chad Powers is getting everything Russ wanted, but Russ can't exactly enjoy his success without constantly worrying that someone is going to connect the dots.
Thankfully much of the Catfish crew is coming along for the ride. Perry Mattfeld returns as Ricky, Steve Zahn is back as Coach Jake Hudson, Quentin Plair returns as Coach Byrd, Wynn Everett reprises her role as Tricia Yeager, Frankie A. Rodriguez is back as Danny and Colton Ryan returns as Gerry. With Gerry already suspicious and Coach Hudson keeping a close eye on Chad, Russ has plenty of reasons to be nervous.
And of course there's Ricky, and this is where things get even more interesting. She knows who Russ really is, which puts her in a very different position than everyone else around him. As Russ' secret becomes harder to protect, their relationship adds an emotional element to a story that is otherwise packed with football and comedy.
Season 2 also brings some new faces into the Catfish world, including Gillian Jacobs, Colin Woodell, Carey O'Donnell and Nate Varrone, so Russ is going to have even more personalities to deal with while trying to keep Chad Powers' carefully constructed world from falling apart. And if you've watched the first season, you already know that Russ isn't exactly the smoothest person when it comes to handling complicated situations.
What makes Chad Powers even more entertaining is the fact that the character actually started as a hilarious real-life stunt. Eli Manning famously went undercover in prosthetics for an Eli's Places segment, pretending to be a walk-on quarterback, and the character eventually became the inspiration for Hulu's scripted comedy. Glen Powell and Michael Waldron helped bring that concept to television, with Eli and Peyton Manning among the show's executive producers.
Now the joke has become a full-blown series about second chances, football, ambition and identity, but at its heart, it's still incredibly easy to watch because Russ is such a wonderfully messy character. He wants to prove that he isn't finished, but the one thing standing in his way might be the very identity he created to get back into the game.
And that's really the big question heading into Season 2. How long can Russ Holliday keep pretending to be Chad Powers before somebody finally figures him out? With Chad becoming a football superstar, Coach Hudson and Gerry getting suspicious and Ricky becoming more involved in Russ' secret, the pressure is definitely on.
The good news is all six episodes of Season 2 are now streaming on Hulu, so you can jump right back into the Catfish drama. Whether you're watching for Glen Powell's hilarious transformation, the football story, the romance, the ridiculous situations or simply to see how long Russ can keep this whole thing going, Season 2 delivers plenty of laughs and even more chaos.
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