Glen Powell is your new favorite movie star

Last weekend’s opening of Twisters saw the windy picture receive both critical acclaim — although not in this magazine — and commercial success, blowing to a wildly impressive $81 million opening at the US box office. This was by no means a given for the tornado thriller, as the original film, although a smash hit when it opened in 1996, is largely unknown to the millennial audience who make up the majority of moviegoers who will flock to see a film as soon as it comes out; many of them were not even born when it was released. Instead, its appeal lies another way, in the casting of newly minted megastar Glen Powell in one of the lead roles.

Powell is not the film’s official star; that responsibility lies with British actress Daisy Edgar-Jones, hitherto best known for her role in the television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s miserabilist literary wallow Normal People. Yet just as Edgar-Jones was upstaged there by Paul Mescal and his meme-able chain, so she has the misfortune to be sharing the screen in Twisters with an actor who is coming off a string of hits and critical successes that display both his versatility and charisma. In truth, Twisters, in which he plays the storm-chasing bro Tyler, forever uploading his latest spectacle to YouTube, is not much of a test of his thespian ability. Powell must look by turns cocky, shocked and heroic, and manages all of these things with aplomb. But aplomb, these days, is only the beginning of what you need to be a movie star.

Powell emerged when he was a teenager with small roles in the likes of Spy Kids 3:D and Fast Food Nation — which first brought him to the attention of Richard Linklater, who would later become a far more significant collaborator — but nobody who saw the handsome, clean-cut Texan would necessarily have pegged him as the next big thing. His first breakthrough would come in 2016, when he played the astronaut John Glenn in the NASA drama Hidden Figures, but it would be his supporting role in Top Gun: Maverick six years later that would cement him as a star. As the arrogant, cocky pilot “Hangman,” he was both punchable and likable, coming perilously close to stealing scenes from the film’s star Tom Cruise and placing himself firmly in Hollywood’s radar.

Yet if 2022 was the beginning of Glen Powell, movie star, the last twelve months have reinforced his standing beyond expectations. His pairing with Sydney Sweeney in the R-rated, decidedly old-school romantic comedy Anyone But You saw the film soar to vast commercial success ($220 million on a $25 million budget) and both of its stars become thirst traps for both sexes. But if there was any danger of Powell developing a himbo image, à la Ken in Barbie, his superbly versatile turn in Linklater’s wildly enjoyable Hit Man, which he co-wrote, established him as a serious dramatic actor, who could U-turn from mundanity to charm to absurdity with ease. It was a gift of a role and he unwrapped it with all the glee of a kid at Christmas.

Twisters, then, represents the latest assault by Powell on the box office and America’s affections alike. It was no coincidence that Cruise joined him in solidarity at the film’s London premiere, symbolically passing on the torch from one generation to another. Future projects include an Edgar Wright-directed Running Man remake, a new adaptation of the classic comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets and, possibly, a new, less intense incarnation of Batman. He had a small role in The Dark Knight Rises, but perhaps the time has come for him to step into the Batcave. He has commented that, “I was always a Batman guy. I would have a wild take on Batman. It definitely would not be like a Matt Reeves tone — it’d probably be closer to Keaton.” The internet has become very excited by his following DC supremo James Gunn and various other Batman-adjacent types on Instagram, and it may all be a coincidence — and, certainly, too many intriguing actors have become stuck in superhero purgatory for this to be as exciting as some fanboys would like it to be. But whatever happens, the affable and charming Powell is a new breed of film star, and it is hard not to be delighted at his overnight success, a mere fifteen years in the making.