(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Stills)
Sat 27 September 2025 3:00, UK
Glen Powell didn’t exactly come from nowhere, but there was certainly a time before and post-Powell, probably around Top Gun: Maverick, where you couldn’t remember having seen him before, but suddenly, he was in everything.
The following few years have included some good showings from the 36-year-old Texan, and some not so good; anyone who has sat through the irritating mess that is 2024’s Twisters will back that up. But he definitely shone in Richard Linklater’s slick Hit Man from 2023, which bagged him a Golden Globe nomination.
Right now, it’s fair to say the jury is out on Powell, who undoubtedly has the looks and presence to be a modern-day heir to the likes of the sadly late Robert Redford, but needs to start choosing the best scripts in order to do it. At the moment, he seems to rely on a slightly smarmy grin and twinkly eyes, especially in a scene while talking to a leading lady and hopes that it translates as charisma.
But the signs of a much deeper talent are undoubtedly there, in that he produced at co-wrote the script for Hit Man, picking up a Writers Guild of America nomination for the screenplay, and indeed as far back as 2017 he was nominated for awards albeit as part of a cast on the fantastic Hidden Figures, the story of three female mathematicians who were integral to the success of the United States’ space programme in the 1960s.
Powell had been acting since the mid-2000s but without getting a lot of success, eventually writing to Sylvester Stallone in the hope of landing a part in The Expendables 3, which, to his credit, he did. He then paired up with Linklater for the first time in the Dazed and Confused follow-up, Everybody Wants Some!!, before Tom Cruise convinced him to take a part in Top Gun: Maverick, the film that was absolutely made for a ridiculously handsome, six-pack-rocking, overconfident star in the making like Powell.
The 2022 Air Force spectacular proved a global smash, and Powell was now firmly on the radar of casting directors looking for leading men. He showed he could do comedy as well as oiled up topless volleyball scenes when he appeared opposite Sydney Sweeney in Anyone But You the following year, which not many people liked that much, but somehow made more than $200million at the box office.
Now Powell is ready for another big hit with his lead role in the remake of the 1980s classic The Running Man, the Stephen King-penned dystopian gameshow thriller helmed by Baby Driver and Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright. Hitting screens in November, it will mean Powell has big shoes to fill, given Arnold Schwarzenegger was so memorable in the 1987 original. That’s in addition to his starring in the sports comedy series Chad Powers, in which he stars as a disgraced quarterback trying to recover his career as an everyman. It’s the kind of role Powell looks to the likes of former Parks and Rec star Chris Pratt for inspiration, the man who is able to straddle both action hero and relatable funny guy.
Powell told GQ: “I remember when Chris Pratt broke out in Guardians of the Galaxy. There’s no doubt it really helped—not being brooding or dark. Like, I’m not Christian Bale. Christian Bale has a gravitas and a weight, and Pattinson had his thing. And when Pratt kind of appeared on the scene, where he was doing things that were a little more silly and buoyant, that’s where I feel most at home.”
Adding, “And that’s where I feel like I had a gear that is a necessary flavour in terms of Hollywood, and not a gear that a lot of guys can play… He’s a conduit for the audience because he’s someone you can identify with or relate to.”
Pratt has been a successful lead in a number of huge franchises over the past decade, from Guardians of the Galaxy to The Terminal List to Jurassic World. He’s also in discussions to star in a sequel to 2021’s Amazon Prime movie The Tomorrow War, which was a hit with streamers despite costing some $200million to make.
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