Glen Powell, Cast Explain Cliffhanger

[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the season finale of Chad Powers.]

The mask didn’t come undone.

But it might as well have because Chad Powers’ (Glen Powell) secret is now out, at least when it comes to his relationship with coach Ricky (Perry Mattfeld). In the season one finale of Hulu’s sports comedy Chad Powers, Ricky discovers that Chad is actually former star quarterback Russ Holliday, who went undercover with the help of school mascot Danny (Frankie A. Rodriguez) and some convincing prosthetics. When the truth comes out, it fractures their connection — the “bond over being the odd ones in the bunch,” as Mattfeld previously told The Hollywood Reporter.

What viewers don’t get to see is how Russ’ reveal might ripple through the rest of the team — and their coaches, Jake Hudson (Steve Zahn) and Byrd (Quentin Plair), as well as Tricia (Wynn Everett), the head of the booster trust — if they learn that Chad was a fraud. But things could get even messier if Hudson finds out that Russ once slept with his wife, Wendy (Megan Ketch), before realizing who she was.

By the end of the six-episode first season — executive produced by NFL legends Eli and Peyton Manning and inspired by an ESPN skit that saw Eli go undercover — Chad shows up at the last minute to play in the Georgia vs. South Georgia Catfish game, leaving many questions about what comes next for Chad/Russ.

Below, in interviews conducted with THR before the show released, castmembers Powell, Zahn, Plair, Rodriguez and Everett tackle the biggest lingering questions from that finale — and if their characters have to say goodbye to Chad.

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What I loved about Chad and Coach Hudson’s relationship is that Hudson embraces Chad almost like his own son, but if or when Hudson finds out that it was actually Chad that slept with his wife, how do you think this will impact their relationship? And Steve, do you think Hudson could forgive him? 

STEVE ZAHN I don’t know. It’s a really good question and I haven’t thought about that. I’m going to have to feel it out. We were just talking about that. Nothing’s definite. The scripts aren’t solid, and we’ll see how this relationship evolves if we’re shooting another season. Then that interaction will make more sense after we work some more together, because it seems almost impossible — but I don’t know.

GLEN POWELL When [showrunner Michael] Waldron and I were breaking this show, we were talking about Breaking Bad. Vince Gilligan always said, “It’s going to be a little bit ahead of your audience, but never too far ahead,” where you’re almost writing too far down the field where you’re missing out on the minutiae of thrilling elements. You get to sit in the story a little bit. What’s really fun about this show is that some of the great moments I’m really proud of are from when we first started writing and we did not know where it was going. So to be on that ride with the audience is amazing. We have such a great brain trustg As you’re getting to see how certain people are playing things and how actors are showing up and how the writers room is interpreting things, it’s an amazingn how we stuck the landing. And if we get the opportunity to make a season two, where that will go.

When Hudson has a heart attack, why didn’t Chad just call an Uber or Lyft? Was Chad using his car really the only option, and do you think Chad could’ve gotten away with his double life if that hadn’t happened?

ZAHN I think we’re in the middle of nowhere.

POWELL We have a ranch in East Texas. I’ve tried to call Uber out there one time and it took like two hours. (Laughs.) Maybe that’s a little bit of refrigerator logic for Los Angeles, but if you’ve ever been out in the middle of nowhere in Georgia, you understand that if an Uber driver shows up, you do not want to see them. (Laughs.)

ZAHN There are certain aspects of the show that are absolutely absurd. If you sit back and try to over-explain it, you’re screwed!

POWELL We try to kick the tires on as much logic as we can. I really am proud of one of the things we had is obviously Eli and Peyton, our producers, as resources — even for all the football, when people are coming off the field, what they’re doing and how they’re talking to the box. When people are moving out, you’ll notice all the detail around us. I’m really proud with how authentic everything is and how much time and effort went into it. Because a world that’s very fast-paced and three-dimensional, people who have been watching football their whole lives will notice the difference. We put a lot of time and effort into that.

That decision was ultimately where the light went off with Ricky, and she realized Chad was actually Russ. She lets him play in the Georgia game so it seems like things for now are good professionally, but do you think their relationship is salvageable? And then Steve, do you want Chad and Ricky to be together? 

ZAHN It’s hard for me to answer that question as my character. It’s almost impossible, because I don’t know where all this goes.

POWELL I also find that this show is really an exploration of what people do at their most desperate. We’ve always talked about what a national championship means to this team and these individuals, as well as this town and what people are willing to do to get what they want — whether it’s sacrificing morals or turning a blind eye. What’s really fun is that the character logic wouldn’t be logic of necessarily the world. People do pretty irrational things when they want to get what they want, and will conveniently turn a blind eye. You’ll see the characters are so specific and grounded. I’ve been a college football fan my whole life, so a lot of the characters in the show are based on real people. We’ve seen that when Wal [Michael Waldron] and I were first talking about this, whether it’s the Boosters or assistant coaches or people peripherally involved, it’s all grounded in that fandom. But I find that what’s really fun about this show is that it’s not logic-based — it’s character-based.

Things started to unravel with Chad towards the end of the season and that’s where a lot of his growth came from as he realized his second chance at football could be ruined, after finding genuine people in his life who care about him. If things do crumble for Chad, can Russ as a person move forward with his life? 

POWELL How we deal with failure? That was a universal emotion; how we pick ourselves up, how we look at ourselves in the mirror after failure. I think that was an interesting exploration for a guy who wasn’t willing to say “I’m sorry” to the world and wasn’t willing to say “I’m sorry” to himself. I thought that was a really fun character to charge forth with — a guy who, instead of looking himself in the mirror and reckoning with the mistake he made, decides to put on an entirely new face (laughs) and tries to put that ball across the goal line. That’s a fun thing to chase.

What was behind the decision to end the series where it did, with it being so abrupt and how does that set things up for a second season? I have a hard time believing Chad’s story ends here…

POWELL I’ll say, that’s obviously the people’s choice if we get a second season. So please tell everyone to tune in. We’d really love another season. [Editor’s note: This interview took place before the series premiered.]

ZAHN We have to have another season.

POWELL Exactly. The reality is there’s a lot more story to be told. There was a construction early on for an arc of what the Catfish would look like. So we have a beginning, middle and end in mind. But people have to tune in and show us they want to see it. We believe in this show. I believe we have a hit show here and one the world’s really going to love. if we get the privilege to make a second season, we have some fun stuff in mind.

Frankie, Danny is such a loyal wingman to Russ as Chad, even though Russ can treat him poorly at times, like in episode four when they’re fighting at the ER. What do you think it is about their relationship that has Danny always in his corner?

FRANKIE A. RODRIGUEZ They definitely both need something from each other. They’re each other’s last resort at friendship, and it’s an unlikely friendship. What happens in episode four with the big blowup between the two actually needed to happen because then for five and six, they have a different dynamic. He is loyal because he wants something out of it like popularity, but what ends up happening is that he actually ends up caring about him.

Quentin and Wynn, we see Ricky really angry when he finds out that Chad is actually Russ Holliday. How would you anticipate Tricia (Wynn) and Coach Byrd’s (Quentin) reactions, and do you think the south Georgia Catfish can continue if the truth comes out?

WYNN EVERETT For Tricia, I will tell you that it does not matter who is under that mask. As long as we are winning, I will hide that secret till the day I die. I do not care. I want to win. if Chad is our way to win, I will never tell.

QUENTIN PLAIR That’s a fantastic question. It’s something I know the writers and myself are going back and forth on now. When Byrd figures out how he is going to handle that… because out of the coaching staff and everybody, Byrd is the moral baseline. He’s the one who would have the biggest problem. At the end of the day, there’s going to be that juxtaposition of being a failing team, like two in 10 like Florida State last year. Just terrible.

EVERETT (Laughs) Drag them!

PLAIR (Laughs) I’m a Miami Hurricanes fan. Absolutely terrible for [Florida State] So a rough season, and you have two of those back to back or a few of those back to back, you lose your job. You’ve gotten gifted with this magical player in Chad/Russ Holliday and that’s going to be something where you have to look in the mirror and see, “Hey, we’re winning.”

EVERETT Yeah, nobody needs to know about this! (Laughs.)

PLAIR And now I have this person in my ear as a poster saying that right there! (Laughs.) So, that juxtaposition would be really beautiful to play.

Perry previously told me the whole cast bonded over being big sports fans, so I’m curious what it was like to shoot these epic football scenes, especially in the last episode at the Georgia game? 

RODRIGUEZ It was amazing. The energy alone filming at halftime at a real football game was crazy. They threw me in the stands and said, “OK, go!” I was like, “Wait, what?’” It was unlike anything I’ve ever done. But when I left, I was like, “Whoa.” I had such a buzz.

PLAIR I played football in college, but I hadn’t run into any SEC stadiums with 80,000 people in those monster stadiums. Sp to run in during that, and then have them booing us — they were told to boo us like we’re Tennessee, because I think Tennessee was coming up. And when we were coming back, they knew that it was our last time. The whole crowd cheered for us. There were guys on the side — the Game Changing Films, the football players, there were like tears running, I got super emotional, I didn’t expect it. They had booed us every time and then they were just cheering for us and we’re all jumping up with Glen. It was one of those experiences we get to as actors like, “If I did anything else, I wouldn’t get this.” One of those things I’ll always look back on like, “Man, that was great.”

Gerry (Colton Ryan), the OG quarterback, was really upset when Chad showed up at the last minute and it seems like he’s picking up on things. Is he someone to watch out for?

PLAIR I absolutely think so. Gerry was able to have a really beautiful arc, especially because in the context of this, he would’ve gone through all summer expecting to be our starting quarterback and gone into the season being our starting quarterback, having the locker room, living out those dreams that you had, and then having somebody out of nowhere, out of West Virginia — this goofy guy Chad (laughs) — just take his spot. That’s got to be something that’s hard to deal with. You see Gerry going through that in season one and that’s not going to stop with Gerry. He’s still on the team. He’s not going anywhere.

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Chad Powers is now streaming all of season one on Hulu. Read THR‘s cover story with Glen Powell and Eli Manning, and postmortem with showrunner Michael Waldron.