The halftime show that turned the Super Bowl into a pop-culture event is getting its own feature film. Spectacle: Michael Jackson at the Super Bowl, a documentary on Jackson’s Super Bowl XXVII performance at the Rose Bowl in January 1993, is set to premiere in February 2027 — the same month Super Bowl LXI is played at SoFi Stadium on February 14.
The project was announced Tuesday, October 13, with a 15-second teaser that shows Jackson on the Pasadena stage in his black-and-gold military-style jacket as the crowd chants his name. The film will stream on Hulu on Disney+ and air on the same network family that carries Super Bowl LXI. No exact premiere date has been set yet.
Skydance Sports also posted a broadcast teaser cut for Tuesday night’s “Super Bowl Night” episode of Dancing with the Stars.
What the film covers
Bao Nguyen, who directed The Greatest Night in Pop about the making of “We Are the World,” directs and produces. The announcement promises never-before-seen footage of Jackson and his team preparing for the show, along with the backstory of how the booking came together and the legacy the performance left on every halftime that followed.
It is a Skydance Sports production made in association with Optimum Productions, which manages the Jackson estate’s media. Jesse Sisgold, Jon Weinbach and Lauren Gaffney produce for Skydance Sports, John Branca produces for Optimum Productions and Amit Dey produces for Into the Deep End Films. Karen Langford is an executive producer for Optimum.
The league’s own film unit is also part of the project. Ross Ketover, Ken Rodgers, Keith Cossrow and Jessica Boddy of NFL Films are executive producers.
Why Super Bowl XXVII still matters
Before 1993, halftime was mostly marching bands, college drill teams and themed revues. A year earlier, during Super Bowl XXVI, a rival network pulled viewers away from the game broadcast with a live sketch-comedy special aired against halftime. The league answered by booking the biggest star in the world.
On January 31, 1993, during the Dallas Cowboys’ 52–17 win over the Buffalo Bills, Jackson shot up through the stage floor and then stood completely still for about a minute and a half while the stadium roared. He went on to perform “Jam,” “Billie Jean” and “Black or White,” then closed with “We Are the World” and “Heal the World” with more than 3,000 local children joining the finale. The audience grew during halftime instead of drifting away, and the show became the model for booking a single superstar headliner — the template behind U2, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny.
Super Bowl XXVII was the fifth and most recent Super Bowl played at the Rose Bowl, following XI, XIV, XVII and XXI.
The Super Bowl LXI connection
The February release window puts the film right alongside the next Super Bowl in the same region. Super Bowl LXI kicks off at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on February 14, 2027, roughly 20 miles from the Rose Bowl, more than 34 years after Jackson’s show in Pasadena.
The documentary arrives with the LXI halftime booking still open. As of Thursday, October 15, the league, Apple Music and Roc Nation have not named a Super Bowl LXI headliner. That is later than any reveal in recent years: Kendrick Lamar was announced on September 8, 2024, and Bad Bunny on September 28, 2025. Online speculation has centered on Miley Cyrus, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber and Harry Styles, but none has been confirmed.
This page tracks the announced documentary and how it fits into Super Bowl LXI season. The exact premiere date and the LXI halftime headliner will be separate announcements when the league and its partners release them.
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