Chad Powers boss Michael Waldron teases the second season of the football comedy, Growth and Shifting Gears to the Breaking Point trailer, plus plans for Season 3.

The thing about "Chad Powers": It's an acquired taste. "It's a deeply, deeply stupid show," co-creator Michael Waldron says with a knowing laugh from the corner of the zoom window. "And I'm very proud of that." From the get-go, Waldron and co-creator/star Glenn Powell knew they were taking a leap of faith in asking audiences […]

Here's the thing about "Chad Power": It's an acquired taste.

"It's a deeply, deeply stupid show," co-creator Michael Waldron says with a knowing laugh from the corner of the zoom window. "And I'm very proud of that."

Waldron and co-creator/star Glenn Powell knew they wanted viewers to buy into the Hulu show's silly premise: former wannabe star Ross Holloway (Powell) dons a fake mask, mustache and wig and recruits a no-nonsense football team to try to make a comeback. The glory of the network, but the statistics show that in the second season, "Chad Powers" has found his people. RELATED STORIES Joe Rogan signs nine-figure Spotify contract extension Apple's latest AirPods Max headphones are getting a rare $120 discount for Prime Day

All six new episodes aired Sept. 3, and the second season premiere of "Quarter Seven" ranked third among scripted series on Hulu with 2.86 million viewers in the U.S., according to Nielsen. (6.72 million) and topped by “Nine Perfect Strangers” (2.06 million), FX’s “Adults” (2.04 million) and “How I Met Your Father” (2.01 million). (These are the only Hulu shows to cross the threshold a second time.) Popular in Variety

Beyond that, the episode was one of the strongest launches for Hulu's returning script since the start of 2023. It's No. 14 behind new seasons of FX's "Only Murders in the Building," "The Bear," "Paradise," "King of the Hill," "Futurama" and "The Handmaid's Tale."

In the first 28 days of Season 2, the series showed what Nielsen called "strong audience retention," averaging 2.75 million viewers per episode in the US (those numbers are fairly comparable to Season 1, which averaged 2.96 million viewers per episode).

"Making this show is the greatest joy of my career," says Waldron. I can't believe how special it is, and yet, audiences keep finding it. It just makes me happy that people dig it.

The industry has responded, too: Rotten Tomatoes' critics' score has risen from 60 percent in Season 1 to 93 percent for Season 2. Many of those reviews attributed the series' shift to a darker tone, which Waldron, who directed four of the season's six episodes, made to evoke the "Point Break" films and films by Tony Scott, Jonathan Demme and Sam Raimi.

"We shoot six-day episodes, but our level of ambition is as if we were a big movie," Waldron says.

Waldron made his directorial debut with the Season 1 finale, where he took on the challenge of filming during halftime of a game at the University of Georgia (his alma mater).

"Almost every day on set I felt like I was recreating that experience," adds Stowaldron, "UGA, where it was like, 'Holy shit, the clock is ticking!' So, that led to a lot of what you see in this season. "It's a lot of moving masters [one continuous, unbroken camera shot] — kind of that 'Point Break,' 'Uncut Gems' vibe — and it added to the drive and tension of the season."

The drama focuses on Ross's efforts to keep his identity a secret, with the help of his friend Danny (Frankie A. Rodriguez), a mascot in a catfish costume, and assistant coach Ricky Hudson (Perry Metfeld), with whom he falls in love. The trio's biggest threat is backup quarterback Jerry (Colton Ryan), who has grown increasingly suspicious of Chad. When Jerry learns the truth, tensions rise even more and, now completely desperate, he blackmails Ross into playing the game against Texas with a bet of $200,000.

The ending ends on a cliffhange r: Ricky and Ross find a way around Gray's rules to win the game. But they soon discover that Danny, in an effort to protect them from Jerry, has revealed Ross' identity to strengthen Tricia Yeager (Wayne Everett). And Tricia has her own demands: Ross and Danny live on her farm so Ross can play Chad — and serve as her cash cow.

There is also a big development in the romance department of "RickyRuss". "There's a little fan base for them online that I look at, and I hope they all feel like they're getting their fill, as they say, this season," Waldron said.

After the game, Ricky confesses that he loves her and they end up kissing. But then, Coach Jake Hudson (Steve Zahn), head coach of the Catfish and Ricky's father, catches them. And the camera fades to black before revealing whether or not Ricky has ripped off Chad Ross' prosthetics.

With the second season airing, Waldron has turned his attention to a potential third season. He and Powell designed the story to evolve over three episodes, following the fictional South Georgia Catfish over the course of a football season.

"A story like this certainly doesn't want to overstay its welcome," Waldron says, explaining that the first season began with Ross' fall and focused on the first half of Chad's football season, while the second set of episodes followed the Catfish's run to the playoffs.

So if, and apparently when, Hulu renews the series for Season 3, viewers will be watching the Catfish compete to win Natty (the national championship game) — which could mean a rematch with Waldron's Georgia Bulldogs or Texas Longhorns (Powell College's team).

"If they want us to build more, I guess Chad can join the basketball team," Waldron says with a laugh again.

"Nothing is guaranteed," he continues. But in the same way that this season, we tried to subvert the audience's expectations of telling a sports story—which has these predictable conventions: rise and fall and rise again—we try and continue to do so.

Of course, Waldron is very busy. He is a Marvel Studios stalwart, having created the hit Disney+ series "Loki" and writing Raimi's 2022 film "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." He also co-wrote "Avengers: Judgment Day," which opens in December, and is in the early stages of producing "Nova." Next, he and Anomaly Pictures' Adam Fasullo will follow up "Chad's Powers" with "Spaceship Earth," a new Disney+ pilot inspired by Disney World's Epcot attraction of the same name. Written by Jason Fox ("It: Welcome to Derry") and Waldron, the series will star Catherine Lagaia (Disney's live-action "Moana") and Deacon Phillippe ("Brother Save Us").

But that's the future — in this interview, Waldron answers some of our burning questions about "Chad's Powers" Season 2 and what audiences can expect in the (presumably) final season.

I'd like to say it was a big plan to go from "I hate you" to "I love you," but as always, it's something we found more organically. I remember working on that last scene and realizing that we had reached the point that we had. The feeling of a moment was honest.

There's a lot of discussion in the writers' room about, "Would it ruin the show if they kissed?" When you have a "are they, are they," when they kiss, it's like, "What's the tension of the show?" So, we talked a lot about the kiss, but it was a surprise to me when Ross said he loved her. It was one of those wonderful things that came up while working on the finale script and even as we were filming the show it felt like we were seeing the characters cash in on the journey, so it was a great mirror for the very sad end of the first season.

One of the most complex sequences was the opening of episode 5, where Gary appears as Mustache. You have Chad watching Ricky talk to Jay in the end zone. Danny coming out in the stands and Gary going to Chad. With the geography of the football field, everything becomes technical. You really rely on your DP, your script supervisor and everyone to keep your head straight, but it was all in good fun.

The scene with Ricky and Ross in the golden hour was the result of an accident. We had to change those places during the day. The place we had didn't work, but we wanted a sense of space and a feeling that they were going out in the country, so we turned around and found this field. When Ricky is driving and he comes to a screeching halt, I'm in the back seat behind them directing, and we happened to burn enough in the first part of the day to shoot that great dialogue scene outside the car at golden hour. This was one of my favorite scenes of the season because it's when she tells him, "If you love Chad, then maybe you should reconsider your idea of ​​Ross."

The first season was about Ross taking responsibility: he could admit why he wanted to be Chad in the first place. At first it was just, "Well, the world messed me up and I don't take any responsibility for it." And at the end of the season, he can at least say to his dad, "I messed up, and I'm sorry, and I like being Chad because I'm not so sad all the time."

Season two, Glenn and I, the writers, wanted to evolve his arc to where he's a little bit more of a hero than an anti-hero, and get him to a point where people point out that you can't be Chad forever. And is Ross as bad as you think? If you can do good things like Chad, and if Chad is a good person, and a way to be a good person, as Ricky says, they're the man. So this chapter is about: Can Ross forgive Ross?

That's why in the final football sequence, he runs the game like Ross because of Ricky, Danny, Coach Hudson, and all these amazing people that have come into his life. Not because of the win, not because of football, but he can forgive himself a little. At least for that one game, he's finally Ross again because he's okay with himself.

We wanted him to score in an epic way and we looked at different versions of that, like Cam Newton diving into the pylon, and as we were shooting, Fernando Mendoza just scored his amazing point in the national championship game. But we landed on the horns of a headlock with that Texan, and the guy did everything he could to knock the ball out of his hands. This time Ross commits his original sin and keeps the ball.

It had to be done in a way that made him look very cool. That's what I told [him], I was like, 'Texas is going to lose. Georgia is going to lose. It's going to be off the screen. We're going to completely ignore it. It basically didn't happen.'

There were many discussions in the writers' room. I said, "Well, they must lose, but how can they win?" At one point, someone in the writers' room said, "Do you want the best for the show? Or do you want the best for the University of Georgia fantasy football team?" And I was like, "Fair enough." So, apologies to Kirby [Smart] and the Dawgs for taking L's regular season here.

I know! And Arkansas! [Laughs.] It's tough, but I'd like to think that losing to Catfish probably motivated Kirby. who knows We don't know what's going to happen in Season 3. Maybe they will meet again.

We really need to figure this out. We always talked about Breaking Bad, and I got to talk to Vince Gilligan about my writing in corners. But all Vince Gilligan could do was kill people. And on this show we were like, "I don't think we can kill this guy, but if he finds out, he needs to die."

I think Gray's story is not over yet. Trisha has him off the board temporarily, but who knows where he goes from here? But of course, if we can make it, season 3 should start right after this episode.

It's all Colton Ryan, man. The antagonist of the show was supposed to be Evil Rudy. Well, as dumb as Chad is, what if the backup quarterback is in some ways just as big a dumbass?

I saw Colton in Poker Face and was blown away by his performance, and his audition was really good, so we cast him. His first day in the first season was the pool party scene, and he came and did a flip in the pool that was so funny, so wild, but also had this real humanity to him. And as I told Colton, he turned the show on him.

I don't know that I knew Gary was going to be the Joker, but thank God. I'm like, "How could the show be about anything else?" It's just about a great cast that gives you no choice but to push the story towards them. He is a comedic foil. He's pathetic but he plays it straight, and I think that's why it works. And also, is he even a bad guy? If you look at the story from Jerry's point of view, he's right, and that's the sign of a good villain.

It's a deep 90s country cut. I love Mark Wills. I absolutely love that song, and I was always like, "Man, that would be cool to use somewhere." In that sequence, it's perfect for Gary. Jerry's trick is to make you want to laugh at him and cry because he's sad. This marks a good foil for our hero.

[For that sequence,] I was like, 'Colton, you're going to be in a joke band,' and Colton was like, 'Put me in, coach.' Colton would lose weight, get jacked, and talk to Glenn about how to get off camera that day. And she looks amazing. There are so many amazing films on the cutting room floor.