Just when you thought the Super Bowl could not get any bigger, Disney found a way to send it to a galaxy far, far away.
During Monday Night Football, ESPN revealed Star Wars Funday Football, a live animated alternate presentation of Super Bowl LXI coming February 14, 2027.
The real AFC and NFC champions will still play at SoFi Stadium, but Disney, ESPN, Lucasfilm, and the NFL will recreate the game in real time inside the Star Wars universe. And yes, Anthony Daniels is returning as C-3PO.
The Super Bowl Goes Star Wars
Star Wars Funday Football will stream live on Disney+ and the ESPN App and air on Disney Channel and Disney XD.
This is not a prerecorded cartoon. Every real play will be translated into animation as it happens, with NFL players becoming animated avatars and Star Wars characters appearing throughout the presentation.
ESPN has not revealed the setting, commentators, or complete character lineup yet, but the official artwork already features C-3PO, R2-D2, Stormtroopers, TIE fighters, and plenty of Star Wars imagery.
[IMAGE: Official Star Wars Funday Football key art]
Caption: Star Wars Funday Football will turn Super Bowl LXI into the first animated alternate presentation of a Super Bowl.
How Do You Animate a Live Super Bowl?
This may be the most interesting part. The broadcast will use NFL Next Gen Stats player tracking, Sony’s Beyond Sports technology, and Hawk-Eye Innovations to translate what happens on the real field into animated action.
So when a quarterback throws a touchdown at SoFi Stadium, his animated counterpart should be making essentially the same play inside the Star Wars broadcast. Then Disney can layer the Star Wars universe on top with characters, environments, and Easter eggs.
Disney Has Been Building Toward This
Star Wars Funday Football is the fourth major animated NFL presentation from ESPN. It started with Toy Story Funday Football in 2023, followed by The Simpsons Funday Football in 2024 and Monsters Funday Football in 2025.
Now Disney is taking the concept all the way to the Super Bowl.
And the Star Wars football crossover actually starts before February. Disney+ will feature Star Wars-themed Hyperspace Highlights from Monday Night Football, with additional animated Star Wars content planned during the season.
ESPN’s First Super Bowl Is Becoming a Disney Event
There is another reason this matters. Super Bowl LXI will be ESPN’s first Super Bowl production, and Disney is treating it as much more than one broadcast.
The traditional game will air separately, while ESPN will also offer alternate presentations including ManningCast, Pat McAfee programming, Next Gen Stats coverage, and now Star Wars Funday Football.
That is Disney synergy turned all the way up.
Sam’s Disney Diary Take
I have watched Disney’s animated football experiments before, and they are fascinating because they should not work as well as they do. But doing it with the Super Bowl changes everything.
Now you have the NFL’s biggest game, ESPN producing its first Super Bowl, Disney+ streaming it, Lucasfilm celebrating 50 years of Star Wars, and technology capable of rebuilding the game inside another world almost as it happens.
The biggest question now is where the game will actually take place. Tatooine? The Death Star? Somewhere completely unexpected? We do not know yet. But on February 14, 2027, there will be two very different ways to watch the Super Bowl.
One from SoFi Stadium. And another from a galaxy far, far away.
