Glen Powell credits Chris Pratt breakout for lighter Hollywood leads

Glen Powell said in a new GQ interview that Chris Pratt's breakout as Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy helped change casting attitudes in Hollywood and opened a lane for lighter, more buoyant leading men like himself. Powell credited the 2014 Marvel hit with shifting studios away from exclusively dark, brooding archetypes and said the change was pivotal to his rise as a mainstream movie star. He is now poised to headline Edgar Wright's adaptation of Stephen King's The Running Man, scheduled for release in November, though reported release dates range from Nov. 14 to Nov. 17 and some coverage lists only November 2025.

"I remember when Chris Pratt broke out in Guardians of the Galaxy," Powell said. "There is 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." Powell made the remarks while reflecting on how he moved beyond typecasting as the jock or the vanilla next-door neighbor and found roles that played to his athleticism...