Star Wars Funday Football Super Bowl LXI: ESPN Is Animating the Big Game in a Galaxy Far, Far Away
The first animated Super Bowl in history lands at SoFi Stadium on February 14, 2027 — and the Star Wars takeover of ESPN starts today, October 20, with Hyperspace Highlights on SC+.
By The Beat Writer — CelebnMusic247
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The Super Bowl LXI broadcast is getting a second, fully animated life. Per the Disney+ Media Relations announcement sent to CelebnMusic247 on October 19, ESPN, Lucasfilm, Disney and the NFL will present Star Wars Funday Football — a real-time, animated alternate telecast of Super Bowl LXI set in the Star Wars galaxy — on Sunday, February 14, 2027, streaming live on Disney+ and the ESPN App and airing on Disney Channel and Disney XD.
This is not a pre-game cartoon. Per the release, every play of the game will be recreated in real time, with the players on the field transformed into animated avatars while characters from across the Lucasfilm franchise sub in during key moments and Easter eggs appear throughout. The voice in the middle of it will be a familiar one: Anthony Daniels, an original 1977 cast member, returns to voice C-3PO, per the release.
The traditional telecast is not going anywhere. Per the release, Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge will call the main presentation on ESPN, ABC and Disney+ from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood — our SoCal backyard — with ESPN’s Spanish-language telecast on Disney+ and ESPN Deportes and a separate presentation on Univision. Star Wars Funday Football is one of several alternate options ESPN is stacking around the game, alongside the Manning brothers’ presentation on ESPN2, the Pat McAfee field pass on ESPNU and a Next Gen Stats playbook edition on NFL Network, per the release.
The history here matters. Per the release, this is the first animated alternate presentation of a Super Bowl and the fourth NFL animated telecast from ESPN, Disney and the NFL, following Toy Story Funday Football in October 2023, The Simpsons Funday Football in December 2024 and Monsters Funday Football in December 2025. The animation is produced with data-visualization technology from Sony’s Beyond Sports, combining the NFL’s Next Gen Stats player tracking with Sony’s Hawk-Eye optical tracking, per the release — the same pipeline that has powered the Funday Football series since it began. The animated game will also stream live internationally and land on demand on Disney+ shortly after, reaching more than 155 markets in total, per the release.
And readers do not have to wait until February to see it start. Beginning today, Tuesday, October 20, SC+ — ESPN’s daily SportsCenter show on Disney+ — features Star Wars “Hyperspace Highlights,” with Monday Night Football plays presented in a Star Wars visual theme, per the release. Starting October 26, SC+ will also showcase an animated Darth Vader interviewing an NFL player from that night’s Monday Night Football game on Mondays, per the release.
The timing is no accident. Per the release, the telecast arrives as Lucasfilm celebrates 50 years of Star Wars — and just five days after Super Bowl LXI, on Friday, February 19, a newly restored version of the original 1977 Star Wars returns to theaters.
A Super Bowl, animated live, in the Star Wars galaxy, called from Inglewood. February 14 just became appointment viewing twice over.
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Sources: Disney+ Media Relations (press release, Oct. 19, 2026)
