Chad Powers Season 2 is almost here, and I’ll admit I’m more curious than I expected to be.
The first season had a ridiculously simple hook: take an arrogant former college quarterback, bury him under a mountain of prosthetics, give him a terrible Southern accent, and throw him onto an underdog football team. Somehow, that premise worked. It wasn’t exactly subtle comedy, but Glen Powell committed so hard to the absurdity of Chad Powers that the character became impossible to ignore.
Now the easy part is over.
Season 2 arrives on Hulu on September 3, 2026, with all six episodes available at once. That binge-friendly release matters because the story is no longer just about whether Russ Holliday can fool everyone. The disguise is starting to crack, people are asking questions, and Russ has something he didn’t really have during the first season: people he actually cares about.
That makes the returning cast particularly important. The supporting characters aren’t just there to react to Chad’s ridiculous behavior anymore. They are increasingly tangled up in his secret.
And judging from the announced additions, Hulu clearly wants Season 2 to feel bigger without abandoning the show’s chaotic college-football comedy.
Glen Powell Returns as Russ Holliday / Chad Powers
Obviously, there is no Chad Powers without Glen Powell, and Powell remains the engine driving the entire show.
He plays Russ Holliday, the talented but spectacularly arrogant quarterback whose college career imploded after his behavior on and off the field became impossible to ignore. Instead of accepting that his football career might be finished, Russ did what any completely reasonable person would do: he created a fake identity.
Enter Chad Powers.
The disguise includes prosthetics, a wig, fake facial hair and an exaggerated Southern accent. The whole thing should be ridiculous — and it is — but Powell’s performance is what keeps it from becoming a one-joke sketch stretched into a television series.
Season 2 gives Powell a much harder problem to solve.
Russ isn’t simply trying to stay hidden. He’s beginning to understand that exposing Chad could hurt people around him. That is a significant change for a character whose defining trait has always been putting himself first.
Personally, this is the part of Season 2 I’m most interested in. The disguise was funny the first time around. Watching Russ discover that his actions have consequences is potentially much better material.
The Returning Chad Powers Cast
The supporting cast from Season 1 is largely back, which is exactly what the show needs. The Catfish’s dysfunctional chemistry was one of the strongest parts of the original run, and replacing half the team would have killed that momentum.
| Actor | Character | Season 2 Role |
|---|---|---|
| Perry Mattfeld | Ricky Hudson | Knows the truth and becomes increasingly important to Russ |
| Steve Zahn | Coach Jake Hudson | Continues leading the South Georgia Catfish |
| Frankie A. Rodriguez | Danny Cruz | Remains one of Chad’s closest allies |
| Quentin Plair | Coach Byrd | Keeps the coaching staff grounded |
| Wynn Everett | Tricia Yeager | Adds community and administrative pressure |
| Colton Ryan | Gerry | Remains dangerously close to Chad’s secret |
Perry Mattfeld as Ricky Hudson
Ricky Hudson could become one of the most important characters in the new season.
At the end of Season 1, Ricky learned that Chad Powers isn’t actually Chad Powers. He’s Russ Holliday. That’s not a small secret, particularly when Ricky’s own career could be damaged if everything blows up.
Perry Mattfeld gets more complicated material this time around. Ricky isn’t simply the assistant coach standing next to the protagonist. She knows exactly what he’s doing, which creates an uncomfortable power dynamic.
Russ has spent most of his life manipulating situations to benefit himself. Now he has to think about somebody else’s future.
That should be fun to watch — assuming the writers don’t turn Ricky into nothing more than the obligatory voice of reason.
Steve Zahn as Coach Jake Hudson
Steve Zahn returns as Coach Jake Hudson, the head coach of the South Georgia Catfish.
Zahn is perfectly suited to this role because Jake can be funny without constantly trying to be funny. He’s passionate about football, invested in his players and just oblivious enough to make Russ’s increasingly ridiculous deception possible.
But Season 2 appears ready to push Jake closer to the truth.
The longer Chad stays with the team, the harder it becomes to explain why this supposedly random walk-on has such polished quarterback instincts. Eventually, somebody on that coaching staff has to notice.
Jake is an obvious candidate.
Frankie A. Rodriguez as Danny Cruz
Frankie A. Rodriguez returns as Danny Cruz, the student behind the team’s Catfish mascot.
Danny is one of the more genuinely likable people in Russ’s orbit. He’s also one of the few characters willing to help maintain the Chad Powers illusion without constantly questioning whether the entire situation is insane.
Rodriguez has also had to deal with one of the less glamorous realities of production: spending long stretches filming in Atlanta heat while wearing a heavy mascot costume.
That’s commitment.
Season 2 reportedly strengthens the friendship between Danny and Russ, which could give the series some needed emotional weight. Russ is still a selfish disaster, but he is slowly becoming aware that friendship isn’t just another tool he can use.
Quentin Plair, Wynn Everett and Colton Ryan
Quentin Plair returns as Coach Byrd, providing another coaching perspective as the pressure around Chad increases.
Wynn Everett is back as Tricia Yeager, keeping the South Georgia setting connected to the wider community and administrative side of the university.
And Colton Ryan returns as Gerry, another player whose constant proximity to Chad creates opportunities for the disguise to fall apart.
Gerry doesn’t need to discover the truth immediately. Frankly, it’s funnier if he just keeps getting dangerously close.
New Cast Members Joining Season 2
This is where things get interesting.
Hulu has added several recognizable performers to the second season, and these aren’t just random background additions. They give Russ more people to fool, impress, manipulate or accidentally offend.
Gillian Jacobs as Jerri Dougan
Gillian Jacobs joins Season 2 as Jerri Dougan.
This casting makes a lot of sense. Jacobs has spent years proving she can play characters who are sarcastic, skeptical and completely capable of destroying someone else’s carefully constructed nonsense with one perfectly timed comment.
That makes her a potentially excellent opponent for Powell.
If Russ is expecting everyone around him to fall for Chad Powers, someone like Jerri is exactly the type of character who can make his life miserable.
Colin Woodell as Jay
Colin Woodell joins the cast as Jay, a former South Georgia Catfish player.
This could be one of the more dangerous additions to Russ’s world.
Jay already knows the program. He knows its culture. He understands football. More importantly, he could recognize things about Chad’s game that an ordinary student wouldn’t notice.
Russ can fake a biography.
Faking years of football instincts is considerably harder.
Carey O’Donnell as Mr. Brent
Carey O’Donnell plays Mr. Brent, head of the USG cheerleading department.
That might sound like a side character, but expanding the story beyond the football team is probably a smart move. Season 1 could lean heavily on the Catfish environment because the premise demanded it. Season 2 has more room to explore the wider college ecosystem.
Mr. Brent brings another layer of campus bureaucracy into the story, and I suspect that’s where some of the show’s more ridiculous situations will come from.
Nate Varrone as Dustin
Nate Varrone joins as Dustin, an ordinary guy who gets dragged into Russ’s increasingly complicated web of lies.
The character sounds like an audience surrogate — someone who can look at what Russ is doing and essentially think, What on earth is wrong with this guy?
Honestly, every show like this needs at least one person who reacts to the insanity with something approaching disbelief.
The People Behind the Camera Still Matter
Glen Powell may be the face of Chad Powers, but the series has plenty of experienced football and comedy talent behind it.
Michael Waldron, known for work including Loki and Heels, continues as a major creative force. For Season 2, he reportedly directed four of the six episodes, including the premiere and finale.
That’s a pretty substantial level of control over a six-episode season.
Then there’s Peyton and Eli Manning, who remain executive producers through Omaha Productions.
Their involvement isn’t just a novelty credit. The entire series originated from Eli Manning’s real-life disguise stunt for Eli’s Places, where he went undercover in prosthetics and attempted to participate in Penn State football tryouts.
That real-world connection gives the show an advantage many fictional sports comedies don’t have: the football details can actually feel authentic.
Season 2 Is Filming Bigger Than Season 1
Production for the second season expanded across Georgia, with major football locations including Center Parc Stadium and Sanford Stadium in Athens.
That matters visually.
A college football comedy can look cheap incredibly quickly if everything happens on obviously artificial sets. Real stadiums, real training environments and recognizable football infrastructure give Chad Powers more credibility than its intentionally ridiculous premise deserves.
And that’s part of the charm.
The show is at its best when the football world feels completely serious while Chad is behaving like an escaped cartoon character.
What the Season 2 Character Arcs Could Actually Deliver
The biggest question isn’t whether Chad’s disguise survives.
It’s what Russ does when it starts falling apart.
Season 1 was largely about getting the joke established. Russ created Chad Powers, joined the Catfish and attempted to rebuild his football career while pretending to be somebody else.
Season 2 has a much more interesting problem.
Russ has built relationships.
Ricky knows who he really is. Danny trusts him. The coaching staff depends on him. The team needs his talent. And the closer Russ gets to the people around him, the more damage his secret could cause.
That gives Powell an opportunity to make Russ more than an obnoxious quarterback wearing prosthetics.
The character can still be selfish. He can still be hilariously narcissistic. He can still make catastrophically bad decisions.
But if Season 2 actually makes him understand the difference between being admired and being trusted, the show could become considerably better than its premise suggests.
My Take on Chad Powers Season 2
I’m cautiously optimistic.
The danger is obvious: the Chad Powers joke could get old. There are only so many times you can watch someone nearly expose a fake identity before the audience starts wondering why nobody has simply called the police, the university administration or, frankly, a dermatologist.
But the expanded cast gives the writers more ammunition.
Gillian Jacobs adds skepticism. Colin Woodell brings someone with genuine football history into Russ’s orbit. Ricky already knows the truth. Danny remains emotionally connected to him. And the coaching staff is gradually becoming harder to fool.
That’s enough pressure to make the second season feel different rather than simply bigger.
The six-episode structure is also a good fit. I would much rather watch six tightly paced episodes than twelve installments desperately inventing new ways for someone to almost discover Chad’s identity.
If the writers resist the temptation to make Russ suddenly lovable, Season 2 could be the point where Chad Powers grows from a funny disguise comedy into a genuinely entertaining character comedy.
And if it doesn’t?
Well, at least Glen Powell is going to commit to that ridiculous mustache again.
Chad Powers Season 2 premieres on Hulu on September 3, 2026, with all six episodes available to stream immediately.
