Glen Powell Reminds Us He’s in ‘Spy Kids 3’, Compares it to ‘Dune’

He’s one of Hollywood’s most exciting actors but Glen Powell will never forget where he came from.

The Top Gun: Maverick star, 35, identified his role in Spy Kids 3: Game Over, his very first film, as a career-defining moment.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on Wednesday, May 22, Powell detailed his deep adoration for the 2003 spy action comedy. “I will never forget that moment,” he said. “I was 13. I shot my part, and then I hung out behind the camera. The entire crew had the most interesting jobs on the planet. You had endless friends on set. I think the Spy Kids experience was one of the best days of my whole life.”

The actor also jokingly compared the film to 2021’s Academy award-winning film Dune.

“Spy Kids 3 was arguably our Dune,” Powell said with a laugh during the chat.

To reiterate his fondness for Spy Kids 3, Powell took to social media on Friday, May 24, to share a still of himself in the film via X and captioned it with, “All my real ones put your Long Fingers up.”

The caption referenced Powell’s role as ‘Long-fingered Boy’ in the film, which also starred Antonia Banderas and Sylvester Stallone.

Related: All the Shakespeare References You May Have Missed in ‘Anyone But You’

Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell’s rom-com Anyone But You is making headlines for the pair’s offscreen chemistry, but the movie also has a subtle Shakespearean backstory. Anyone But You follows Bea (Sweeney) and Ben (Powell), who quickly become enemies after a fiery first date ends in a misunderstanding. When they’re reunited by chance at an […]

Powell’s star continues to rise these days after, most recently, starring in, producing and cowriting the screenplay for Netflix’s Hit Man, which was released on Friday, May 24.

The project saw the Anyone But You star reunite with director Richard Linklater who Powell had worked with when he was 14 years old while creating the 2006 film Fast Food Nation.

“I remember when I was 14 and getting to be on that set,” Powell told Us Weekly exclusively. “I literally had a line or two. It was like a nothing role, but for me it was a massive, massive deal to even say a line or two in a Richard Linklater movie.”

He continued, “To flash forward almost 20 years later and to call him a collaborator and colleague and friend, it’s just insane. So the full circle nature of this moment is definitely not lost on me. It is pretty surreal. I’m getting a wonderful chance to occupy some of the [types of] movies that got me into this business in the first place. A lot of the things I’m doing are flavors I’ve enjoyed, so I’m trying to give audiences what I’d want to see in the theater.”