Nike is going Hollywood for its 2026 World Cup brand campaign, releasing a star-studded short film featuring some of the biggest names from music and entertainment, teaming up with many of the greatest soccer players in the world, wreaking havoc on a studio backlot.
It’s a film that Helena Thornton, VP, of Nike brand management, calls a “blockbuster,” and not just because of the effort that went into it, but because of the talent, which includes LeBron James, Travis Scott, Kim Kardashian, Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso, Kate Scott, Channing Tatum, Young Miko and LISA, as well as soccer stars Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland and Vini Jr., and legends Eric Cantona, Ronaldinho, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Didier Drogba and Jorge Campos.
“We wanted to kind of play into the idea of Hollywood and blockbuster movies and all of the pieces, whilst also acknowledging that people today have far greater access to athletes and to singers and entertainers than maybe they’ve ever had before, and they also now expect to see a much more real and rawness to them, because they become accustomed to it,” says Thornton.
You can watch the spot, “Rip The Script,” below.
But the film is only the beginning of the story, with Nike recognizing that the conversations continue in places like TikTok, Instagram, X, Reddit and other platforms. That’s why Thornton says that there are another 185 or so shorts that will tell adjacent stories featuring the roster of talent, and the film itself is filled with easter eggs meant to spark new conversations.
