Glen Powell Sparks Debate With Claim About How 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' Changed Hollywood Leading Men

Chris Pratt, the man who went from Parks and Recreation goofball to Marvel’s most quippy space outlaw, is apparently the reason we have Glen Powell in full golden-retriever-leading-man mode today.

At least, that’s how Powell tells it.

In his recent GQ cover story, Powell seemingly anointed Pratt the pioneer of the “silly and buoyant” leading man—basically Hollywood’s overdue antidote to years of brooding Christian Bale Batman and Twilight-era Robert Pattinson clones sucking all the fun out of auditions.

Pratt’s 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy debut, Powell said, made him reconsider his own career frustrations, back when he was still clocking blink-and-you’ll-miss-it gigs like The Expendables 3.

Powell explained:

“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.”

Translation: Pratt walked so Powell could smirk, flex, and steal your girlfriend while cracking a joke.

He doubled down:

“And that’s where I feel like I had a gear that is a necessary flavor in terms of Hollywood, and not a gear that a lot of guys can play.”

Cute, but the internet immediately coughed up receipts. Will Smith was saving the world and making us laugh in Men in Black back in 1997, Brendan Fraser was the definition of goofy-hot in George of the Jungle and The Mummy, and Ryan Reynolds has been turning sarcasm into an ab workout for, well, forever.

So no—Chris Pratt didn’t exactly invent Funny Hot Leading Man™. He just slapped the Marvel logo on it.

And speaking of funny and hot, Powell is the current blueprint. After his rom-com smash Anyone But You and tornado-thirst-trap Twisters, he’s finally flexing action-hero biceps in Edgar Wright’s The Running Man. To prep, Powell phoned none other than Tom Cruise, his Top Gun: Maverick co-star and patron saint of running very fast onscreen.

Surprisingly, Cruise’s advice wasn’t mystical Scientology wisdom, but practical stunt dad 101: treat it like a physical job.

Powell, never one to half-ass, went all in:

“Okay, I got to be a bit of a weapon. And so that’s why I trained the way I trained on this. I put on a lot of muscle. A lot of it was functional. A lot of it was so I could absorb hits. But a lot of it was also authentically for an audience…”

Naturally, Cruise also clowned him like a true mentor when Powell rolled onto the Top Gun set with a mushroom-infused latte loaded with ashwagandha, reishi, and Cordyceps—proof that even the hottest man alive isn’t immune to being roasted for ordering Goop in a cup.

And the internet? Well, they certainly had thoughts:

Based on Stephen King’s novel, The Running Man is set in a near-future bloodsport where contestants must survive 30 days of being hunted by assassins for a growing cash prize—while the whole thing plays out on TV.

Powell stars as a father trying to protect his daughter, giving us both hotness and literal heart-punch feelings all in one package. The stacked cast includes William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Emilia Jones, Michael Cera, Daniel Ezra, Jayme Lawson, Colman Domingo, and Josh Brolin. Produced by Simon Kinberg, Nira Park, and Wright, the film is set to release on November 7.

Catch the action-packed, cardio-crammed trailer below:

- YouTube Paramount Pictures/YouTube

And if Glen Powell fighting for his life doesn’t sell you on buying a ticket, nothing will.