From Kendrick Lamar’s potential ‘Not Like Us’ performance to high-profile trailers, this is what we’re excited for this Super Bowl Sunday.
ADVERTISEMENTIt’s Super Bowl Sunday this weekend. For the final match of the NFL season, two-time defending Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs will face the Philadelphia Eagles in a rematch of the previous season finale in 2023.
Super Bowl LIX will take place at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans from 6:30pm Eastern Time. This means a kick-off time of 12.30am for those in Central Europe. Given game broadcasts average around three and a half hours, it’ll be a late night for any Europeans tuning in.
For anyone not worried about a groggy start to their Monday mornings though, there are a lot of reasons to stay up and watch. Of course, there’s the actual game between the two teams. But you’d be reading an article in the sports section of the website if you were interested in that.
For many people, the Super Bowl is a community event that brings people together to feast on chicken wings, beer, and enjoy the many creative adornments the NFL broadcasts to keep people entertained.
Much attention on the pitch will be on Kansas City Chiefs tight end (ooh err missus) Travis Kelce, in part for his football prowess, but for many fans because of his girlfriend Taylor Swift who will definitely be in attendance.
On the pitch, there’s a lot more than sports to enjoy too. When the men aren’t yearningly grasping at balls and each other, the Super Bowl is known for its combination of exciting new trailers and, of course, the halftime show.
Trailers galore
Every year, the Super Bowl is used as an opportunity to show off the biggest blockbusters expected to hit the big screen over the year. The commercial and trailer section of the halftime show is a highly anticipated element for all cinephiles for that reason.
But these trailers and commercials come at a cost. There are no figure for trailers widely known, but it’s been reported that Fox has sold at least 10 adverts for the Super Bowl at over $8 million (€7.7 million) for 30 seconds.
That might sound like a lot but given the Super Bowl is watched by a live audience of 100 million people, the maths make some sense… Then many of the trailers and commercials will likely go viral reaching an even greater audience.
So what trailers can viewers expect from this year’s halftime? If you’re a DC fan, you’ll be disappointed to hear that you’ll have to wait longer to see a full trailer of the upcoming Superman, but for action fans, there’s plenty more you might get your teeth stuck into.
Top of the list is the trailer for the final instalment in blockbuster series Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning will provide the first hints for how Tom Cruise’s hero Ethan Hunt will wrap up the story with increasingly extravagant stunts since the 1996 first film.
There are some other trailers likely coming too. M3GAN 2.0, Jurassic World: Rebirth, and Alien: Earth could give insight into the next chapters to these major series. There also could be first peaks at a few live action remakes that have been in the works, including ones of How to Train Your Dragon, Lilo & Stitch, and Snow White.
Fans of the classic cartoon will be happy to hear that there’s likely a reboot of The Smurfs coming with a trailer that could feature at the Super Bowl.
There are also new adaptations coming out of some classic Marvel IP. Disney’s upcoming Thunderbolts* around the antihero team is likely to be a feature of the Super Bowl trailers. Even more likely will be another look at the live action remake of Marvel’s first family with The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
If the endless sequels, live action remakes and IP scraping doesn’t get you excited, there’s also likely going to be some trailers for, wait for it… original movies! Yes, you heard it here first. Major studios are still occasionally funding original ideas.
ADVERTISEMENTMost likely to be seen at this year’s Super Bowl are the trailers for Pixar’s latest film Elio, which follows a young boy on his journey to outer space. The second could be Novocaine, starring Jack Quaid in an action romp as a bank executive unable to feel pain.
Over on the commercials, expect some major star cameos such as Kermit the Frog in a Booking.com ad, Shania Twain lending her talents to Coffee Mate, David Beckham and Matt Damon drinking Stella Artois together, and our favourite: When Harry Met Sally stars Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal recreating the diner scene for Hellmann’s mayonnaise.
Kung Fu Kenny takes the stage
It’s not just trailers that Super Bowl fans get excited for. There’s also lots of live music! And football, we guess. We’re not sure, we don’t understand sports here.
Kicking everything off, American jazz musician Jon Batiste will be performing the national anthem, a role that has been previously tackled by stars including Pink, Lady Gaga and Christina Aguilera.
ADVERTISEMENTAfter that, the main event of the Super Bowl is, of course, the halftime show. The event formed a partnership with Jay-Z’s entertainment company Roc Nation in 2019 as the music strategists, and the group announced that rapper Kendrick Lamar would headline this year’s Super Bowl last September.
It’s been a year of highs for Lamar. He just won five Grammy awards for his 2024 single ‘Not Like Us’ which represented the apex of his diss track beef with Drake. Lamar surprise released a new album ‘GNX’ which also documented the rapper’s feelings of being at the top of his game.
This also isn’t the first time that Lamar has performed at the Super Bowl. He was part of the 2022 entourage show that celebrated West Coast hip-hop with performances from Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent and Anderson .Paak. This time, Lamar will be joined by SZA. Details of the performance remain a mystery though.
The big question on everyone’s lips is whether Lamar will perform Drake diss track ‘Not Like Us’. The beef between him and Drake last year became one of the dominating conversation topics in hip-hop after Lamar used the track to accuse the Canadian rapper of being a “certified paedophile”.
ADVERTISEMENTSince its release in May 2024, ‘Not Like Us’ has ignited crowds, famously uniting members of the opposing LA Bloods and Crips gangs in a Compton performance. Any question as to whether Lamar will sing the most incriminating lines about Drake from the track were answered by the rapper’s approach at the Grammys. While walking to the podium to receive his award, the entire crowd sang the line for him.
“Being in the now and being just locked-in to how I feel and the energy I have now, that’s the L.A. energy for me,” Lamar said Thursday at a press conference hosted by Apple Music. “That’s something I wanted to carry over to New Orleans and for the world to see. This is me. This is Kendrick Lamar, 37 years old, and I still feel like I’m elevating, I’m still on a journey.”
When asked what viewers can expect, Lamar answered: “Storytelling. I think I’ve always been very open about storytelling through all my catalogue and my history of music. And I’ve always had a passion about bringing that on whatever stage I’m on.”
