Super Bowl LXI is getting a version set inside the Star Wars galaxy. ESPN, Lucasfilm, Disney and the NFL will present Star Wars Funday Football, a real-time animated alternate telecast of the championship game that recreates every play as it happens — and it marks the first time a Super Bowl has ever received the animated treatment.
ESPN announced that the telecast will stream live on Disney+ and the ESPN App and air on Disney Channel and Disney XD on Sunday, February 14, 2027, from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. It extends the Emmy-winning Funday Football brand to the biggest game in American sports, and it lands as part of ESPN's first-ever Super Bowl production.
Watch the announcement video here:
Every Play, Recreated in the Star Wars Galaxy
The animated telecast will recreate every play of Super Bowl LXI in real time, transforming the AFC and NFC champions on the field into animated avatars. Characters from across the Lucasfilm franchise will join the action and sub in during key moments, with Easter eggs scattered throughout the game for viewers to catch.
The biggest confirmed name so far is C-3PO, voiced by Anthony Daniels — the original 1977 cast member who has played the protocol droid across the entire saga. ESPN says more details, including the visual settings, the animated broadcast's commentators and additional characters, will be announced as the game approaches.
The presentation runs on data visualization technology from Sony's Beyond Sports, the same system behind the Funday Football series since its inception. It converts live gameplay into animation in real time by combining player tracking data from the NFL's Next Gen Stats with optical tracking from Sony's Hawk-Eye Innovations.
The Fourth Funday Football, and the Biggest One Yet
Star Wars Funday Football is the fourth NFL animated alternate telecast from ESPN, Disney and the NFL. It follows Toy Story Funday Football in October 2023, which earned three Sports Emmy Awards; The Simpsons Funday Football in December 2024; and Monsters Funday Football in December 2025. None of those, however, carried the weight of a Super Bowl.
The animated telecast will sit alongside a crowded lineup of viewing options, including the traditional broadcast with Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge on ESPN, ABC and Disney+, plus alternate presentations headlined by Peyton and Eli Manning, Pat McAfee and a Next Gen Stats-driven edition. The game will also reach more than 155 international markets on demand on Disney+ after the live telecast.
The timing is deliberate. Lucasfilm is celebrating 50 years of Star Wars, and just five days after Super Bowl LXI, a newly restored version of the original 1977 Star Wars returns to theaters on February 19, 2027. The build-up starts now, too: ESPN's SC+ on Disney+ begins running Star Wars-themed "Hyperspace Highlights" from Monday Night Football on October 20, and from October 26 an animated Darth Vader will interview an NFL player every Monday.
Source: ESPN
