The NFL’s subsequent huge video games are getting an unusually heavy dose of leisure.
U2 is slated to headline halftime of the league’s first Thanksgiving Eve sport subsequent month, whereas Jay-Z will reportedly headline Tremendous Bowl LXI in February. The Tremendous Bowl can even get an animated alternate broadcast that locations the sport within the “Star Wars” universe.
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All three developments had been introduced this week, and two of them will happen on the similar stadium: SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
U2 is scheduled to carry out Nov. 25, when the Inexperienced Bay Packers go to the Los Angeles Rams within the NFL’s first Thanksgiving Eve sport. The matchup will kick off at 5 p.m. and stream on Netflix.
The efficiency will mark U2’s return to an NFL halftime stage greater than twenty years after the band performed Tremendous Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans in 2002. That present, staged a number of months after the Sept. 11 terrorist assaults, included “Stunning Day,” “MLK” and “The place the Streets Have No Title.”
The timing additionally coincides with a milestone for the Irish rock band, which fashioned in Dublin in 1976 and is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. U2 plans to launch its sixteenth studio album, “Carnaval de Luz,” on Nov. 13 and launch a world tour in 2027.
Jay-Z on the Academy Museum of Movement Footage on Jan. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. The rapper is reportedly set to headline Tremendous Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium in 2027. (Phillip Faraone/TNS)
Netflix has more and more made its NFL vacation broadcasts into leisure occasions.
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Beyoncé headlined the streaming service’s first Christmas Day NFL halftime present in 2024, adopted by Snoop Dogg in 2025.
In the meantime, Tremendous Bowl LXI is scheduled for Feb. 14 at SoFi Stadium, and Puck reported Tuesday, Oct. 20, that Jay-Z has chosen himself to headline the halftime present. The report cited a number of sources however had not been confirmed by the NFL or Roc Nation.
If confirmed, it might be Jay-Z’s first time headlining the Tremendous Bowl halftime present.
Jay-Z’s Roc Nation has helped oversee and produce the NFL’s Tremendous Bowl halftime leisure for the reason that a full-service leisure and sports activities administration firm partnered with the league in 2019.
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The rap icon is at present marking the anniversaries of two of his albums, “Cheap Doubt” and “The Blueprint,” with a collection of stadium exhibits. He’s scheduled to carry out at SoFi Stadium on Friday, Oct. 23, and Saturday, Oct. 24, giving him one other high-profile look on the venue a number of months earlier than the Tremendous Bowl.
Apart from music, the championship sport could have one other leisure possibility that has nothing to do with the halftime stage.
ESPN, Lucasfilm and the NFL introduced Monday, Oct. 19, that Tremendous Bowl LXI will obtain an animated alternate telecast referred to as “Star Wars Funday Soccer.” This system will recreate each play of the sport in actual time, turning NFL gamers into animated avatars contained in the “Star Wars” universe.
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Characters from throughout the Lucasfilm franchise will seem through the broadcast, together with C-3PO, who can be voiced by unique “Star Wars” solid member Anthony Daniels.
The alternate presentation will stream stay on Disney+ and the ESPN App, and air on Disney Channel and Disney XD. Will probably be produced utilizing player-tracking information from the NFL’s Subsequent Gen Stats and Sony’s Hawk-Eye expertise.
“Star Wars Funday Soccer” would be the first animated alternate presentation of a Tremendous Bowl. It follows ESPN, Disney and the NFL’s earlier “Funday Soccer” broadcasts constructed round “Toy Story,” “The Simpsons” and “Monsters” franchises.
The “Star Wars” model additionally arrives as Lucasfilm celebrates 50 years of the epic area opera. A newly restored model of the unique 1977 “Star Wars” is scheduled to return to theaters 5 days after the Tremendous Bowl.
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This text initially revealed at Jay-Z, U2 and ‘Star Wars’ headline NFL’s subsequent huge leisure occasions.