Glen Powell on the prowl

Not really, I just liked the rhyme. Glen Powell is very busy, having finally launched into the stratosphere following the double whammy of Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone But You. Some of us—me—were predicting his big fame in the latter half of the 2010s, off the backs of charming performances in Hidden Figures and, especially, Set It Up and Everybody Wants Some!!, but the pandemic got in the way, delaying Maverick and Glen Powell’s arrival party. But it finally did happen, and now this guy is all work, work, work. 

The latest Powell project is currently called Ghostwriter, it’s JJ Abrams’ latest mystery box film bound to disappoint us sometime next year. (I truly do not believe JJ Abrams knows how to end things in a satisfying manner. He’ll all foreplay, no follow-through.) As is always the case with JJ Abrams, the details of Ghostwriter are under wraps, but the film co-stars Jenna Ortega, Emma Mackey, and Samuel L. Jackson, it was filming in Europe earlier this year, and it is described loosely as a “fantasy film”. 

Whatever are we in for? Nothing that will live up to the hype, I’m sure. That’s on Powell or Jenna Ortega or Samuel L. Jackson, that’s on JJ Abrams, but right now, I am WAY more excited about Powell starring in The Running Man, because I know that Edgar Wright knows how to land narrative planes. I trust him to deliver on the promise of his premises in a way I do not trust JJ Abrams. 

We’ve had a little bit of a Glen Powell break this year—though he is still good for gossip—as he hasn’t been on screen since last summer’s Twisters, but that is coming to end. He’s got the football comedy series Chad Powers coming to Hulu at the end of September, and The Running Man in November, and next year is shaping up to be busy, too, with multiple projects, including Ghostwriter, penciled in for 2026. This is why I don’t think Top Gun 3 will ever actually happen. Nobody needs it. Everyone from the Maverick class has graduated into movie stardom, Danny Ramirez is dating Jessica Alba on top of that, and Tom Cruise is doing whatever in London with Ana de Armas, plus he’s trying to make that movie in space. We’ll get another Mission: Impossible movie before we get Top Gun 3, which is fine. 

Here's Glen on the Ghostwriter set yesterday.