Deputy X: Glen Powell, Fast & Furious writer team for sci-fi action thriller

Action fans may remember Glen Powell from his role as Thorn in The Expendables 3, and later this year we’ll be seeing him in the long-awaited Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick – but while we wait for that movie’s May 27th release date to come around, Powell is teaming up with Chris Morgan, a writer/producer best known for his association with the Fast & Furious franchise, to develop a sci-fi action thriller called Deputy X.

Powell will star in Deputy X and also came up with the idea for the story, which Alien: Covenant co-writer Jack Paglen will be fleshing out into a screenplay. Details on the story are being kept under wraps, but The Hollywood Reporter hears that Deputy X is “described as being tonally in the vein of such films as the Arnold Schwarzenegger flick The Running Man and 1970s cult classic Logan’s Run.” So it could turn out to be something quite fun. The hope is that this will be a high-concept franchise starter for Powell.

Morgan, who wrote most of the Fast & Furious movies (starting with The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift) and produced several of the sequels, will be producing Deputy X alongside Powell and Paglen.

Powell made his screen debut as a teenager in Spy Kids 3D: Game Over, and in the nineteen years since then has appeared in such films and TV shows as CSI: Miami, The Hottest State, The Dark Knight Rises, Sex Ed, Wind Walkers, Ride Along 2, Scream Queens, Hidden Figures, and Set It Up. He voices a character on the animated show Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, and also had roles in the Richard Linklater movies Fast Food Nation and Everybody Wants Some!! Powell and Linklater worked together again on the upcoming Netflix movie Apollo 10½.

Deputy X is set up at Universal. Universal’s senior vp of production development, Jay Polidoro, and director of development, Tony Ducret, are overseeing the project for the studio. We’ll keep you updated on this one as it continues to move forward.