This post contains spoilers for the Chad Powers Season 2 finale
Football players never want to be butterfingers on the field, but just imagine if they were catching balls with scissor hands instead. The Season 2 finale of Glen Powell‘s pigskin comedy Chad Powers — all six episodes are streaming now on Hulu — opens with the star’s alter ego heading to an empty revival movie theater for a secret meeting with a traitorous teammate. And the vintage movie playing onscreen during this encounter is Tim Burton‘s much-loved 1990 fantasy classic about another fish out of water, Edward Scissorhands, starring Johnny Depp.
“In reality, we didn’t shoot that scene with anything on the screen,” Powell tells Gold Derby about how that cameo came about. After extended discussions with Chad Powers creator, Michael Waldron, about which movie our hero and his saboteur should not be watching, the duo eventually settled on Edward Scissorhands.
“We were talking about that moment where Edward is backed into the castle and all the beautiful things and relationships that he’s tried create [fall apart],” Powell remembers. “He’s hurt everybody, and he’s retreating to the castle. We talked about how we could conjure that sort of feeling; every reference that you’ve seen throughout the show has intention behind it. It may seem like a funny, silly show, but I promise there’s a lot of brain power around trying to make every moment work.”
It helped, of course, that Edward Scissorhands was made by 20th Century Fox, which is now a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Corporation — the same company that funds Hulu and, by extension, Chad Powers. But Powell still needed a final sign-off to bring Edward out of mothballs, which is why he sat down to compose an email to Depp himself, who is seeking to make a Hollywood comeback later this year as the star of Paramount’s upcoming Christmas Carol adaptation, Ebenezer.
“I have to give a shout out to Johnny Depp for giving us the rights,” The Running Man star admits. “Johnny had to give us the OK, so I sent him an email and he did.” Stay tuned to see if Powell pops up in Ebenezer as another Christmas ghost in order to return the favor.
Edward Scissorhands isn’t the only cinematic allusion movie lovers may spot in the Season 2 finale. The entire episode looks and feels like an Oliver Stone movie: think JFK crossed with Any Given Sunday. After spending much of the season leading the South Georgia Catfish collegiate football team to a rare playoff berth, Chad — the bulbous rubber nose-wearing secret identity of disgraced college QB Russ Holliday — is instructed to lose the all-important game by Gerry (Colton Ryan), the quarterback he replaced. If he dares to defy those marching order, his secret will be exposed for all the world to know.
“I appreciate that comparsion,” Powell says when we invoke Stone’s name. “It was always the intention to have a bit of a tonal shift season to season. We talked about Mrs. Doubtfire for Season 1, and with Season 2 we talked about it as a Safdie Brothers movie in terms of the camera style and the sense of Russ’s lie closing in and the percolating energy that brings to every character. The stakes are so high for everybody and the cast met everything we threw at them.”
In another JFK-style touch, the final moments of the finale add another player to the Russ/Chad conspiracy, Catfish booster head, Tricia Yeager (Wynn Everett), who is informed of the double act by Russ’s desperate accomplice, Danny (Frankie Rodriguez). “I was very excited for that twist,” Everett says. “Tricia is in a place that I didn’t see coming, which is the most exciting thing for an actor. I cant wait to see if I take Russ and Danny back to my ranch. Maybe we’ll all be sleeping in the same bed together!”
As for Danny’s decision to reveal Russ’s secret, Rodriguez says it was the only move his character felt he could make in that position. “We’ve been talking about that twist for about a year,” the actor says. “We also felt that Tricia had to be the one to know next, because Glen and I selfishly want more scenes with her! I think that’s going to be a fun development for sure.”
The finale ends with Russ and his other conspirator, Catfish offensive assistant coach Ricky (Perry Mattfield), coming up with a way for the team to without Chad specifically leading them to victory. But that plan falls apart ahead of the final play, and Russ makes one final run toward the end zone that hands them the game — and seemingly ends his tenure as QB. But that’s where having Tricia on their side comes in handy (for now) as her security guard is able to step in and put a swift end to Gerry’s shenanigans.
“That was a really special moment for a lot of reasons,” Powell says. “It’s the first time the stakes are as high as they were in the series premier, and it’s a return to Russ meeting the exact same moment he did then, but he’s a different guy now and he’s got a different family around him. Amid all the chaos of that scene, all of the cast are doing really beautiful work. For me, that’s an emotional moment that encapsulates what the show’s about.”
And there’s one more movie allusion before Season 2 wraps up. Back in the locker room after the game, Russ and Ricky finally seal their long-simmering attraction with a kiss. And right before they lock lips, he’s the first to tell her, “I love you.” Asked if she contemplated pulling a Han Solo on set by responding, “I know,” Mattfield just smiles.
“I had full trust in Michael, and he orchestrated that whole emotional journey so well,” the actress says. “As Glend said, he’s so intentional with everything. And I do think he is always rooting for the women in this story, too, so he curated a very special moment in the finale.”
The finale’s very final shot finds the enemies-turned-lovers being discovered by Ricky’s father and Catfish coach Jake Hudson (Steve Zahn) — one of the increasingly few people on the team who still doesn’t know the truth about Chad. And Zahn confirms that his character still remains in the dark as of that last beat.
“He doesn’t know anything at this point,” the actor says. “I was texting with Michael about that and he said, ‘Wow, we’ve written ourselves into a corner!’ But the way it’s shot, you don’t know much I actually see. I’m just a blur in the background!”
