Super Bowl LXI is getting a trip to a galaxy far, far away. ESPN, Lucasfilm and the NFL will air Star Wars Funday Football, a real-time animated version of the big game, on Disney+, Disney Channel, Disney XD and the ESPN App on Sunday, February 14, 2027.
NEW: Disney will bring Star Wars Funday Football to Super Bowl LXI on Feb. 14. The alternate presentation will stream on Disney+, Disney Channel, Disney XD and the ESPN App.
— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) October 20, 2026
Every play will be rebuilt as it happens, with the players turned into animated avatars. Star Wars characters will step in at key moments, and Easter eggs will be scattered throughout. C-3PO is the first confirmed character, with Anthony Daniels, who has played the droid since the original 1977 film, returning to voice him.
How The Animated Super Bowl Works
Sony’s Beyond Sports turns live tracking data from the NFL’s Next Gen Stats and Sony’s Hawk-Eye cameras into animation in real time. It is the first animated alternate presentation of a Super Bowl and the fourth Funday Football, after Toy Story in October 2023, The Simpsons in December 2024 and Monsters in December 2025.
ESPN will reveal the visual settings, commentators and more characters closer to the game.
Where To Watch And What Else Is On
The animated game runs alongside the regular broadcast from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman in the booth and Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge reporting on ESPN, ABC and Disney+. Peyton and Eli Manning will have their own version on ESPN2, Pat McAfee’s Field Pass airs on ESPNU, and NFL Network carries a Next Gen Stats Playbook telecast. ABC and Disney+ will also air High Potential right after the game, as we covered earlier this month.
Internationally, the animated game will be available in more than 155 markets, live in places like Canada (on TSN+), Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, and on demand shortly after in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
Darth Vader Starts Interviewing NFL Players October 26
Starting today, October 20, SC+, ESPN’s daily SportsCenter show on Disney+, adds Star Wars “Hyperspace Highlights” of Monday Night Football plays. Starting next Monday, October 26, an animated Darth Vader will interview one player from that night’s Monday Night Football game every Monday.
It’s all part of Star Wars’ 50th anniversary. Five days after the Super Bowl, a restored version of the original Star Wars returns to theaters on Friday, February 19.
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