With the eyes of the entire globe on the tournament, the World Cup is a landmark occasion for brands as much as the teams involved.Over previous editions of the tournament, sports-adjacent brands have produced adverts that have been woven into the fabric of the competition. Nike famously produced the ‘Secret Tournament’ advert for the 2002 World Cup, a brand exercise that is almost as memorable as the competition itself.Adidas released its World Cup ad ‘Backyard Legends’ in May, which included celebrities like Timothee Chalamet and Bad Bunny.With high expectations to live up to, the anticipated Nike ad, ‘Rip The Script’, has now arrived, bringing its own star power for the 2026 tournament being held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.A comment on YouTube referred to it as the ‘Avengers Endgame of sports culture’. That’s no surprise given the names involved.With Channing Tatum playing an Erling Haaland double, Eric Cantona’s kung-fu kick referenced, a Kim Kardashian cameo, and players who weren’t called up to the World Cup featured, a lot was going on. Let’s take a closer look.The ad starts with an egomaniacal director losing his head with France’s Kylian Mbappe after he scores an improvised overhead kick when he was meant to perform a header.Amid the director’s rage, the first celebrities appear in the advert. Kim Kardashian, whose clothing brand SKIMS has an activewear brand with Nike, and American musician Travis Scott are shown walking onto the set.That is the prompting moment for the players, Mbappe (France), Vinicius Junior. (Brazil), Nico Williams (Spain), Raul Jimenez (Mexico), Federico Valverde (Uruguay), Bruno Fernandes (Portugal), Tyler Adams (United States), Jamal Musiala (Germany), Alphonso Davies (Canada) and Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands) choose to ignore the director and have a kick-about around the Hollywood mega-studio.After Vinicius Jr dances through a motion capture set for the game Fortnite, Jimenez asks Lisa from the K-pop band BLACKPINK to sign the ball.The players then crash into a sports talk show.Hosted by Kate Scott, of CBS Sports Champions League coverage fame, the ‘strikers know best’ panel is Didier Drogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. It’s all going well until Mbappe and Williams take down the set.Eric Cantona appeared in Nike’s ‘Good vs Evil’ 1996 World Cup advert, and since retiring in 1997, hasn’t shied away from acting. He also appeared in the Secret Tournament advert. The Frenchman has 202 credits on IMDB. He has also been in adverts for French beer brand Kronenbourg 1664 and car maker Renault.When the players crash his set, Cantona is on a small boat at a misty shore.The description ‘Croydon 1995’ is a reference to when Cantona, playing for Manchester United, kung-fu kicked an abusive fan, Matthew Simmons, after being sent off against Crystal Palace. He was handed more than £20,000 in fines, a two-week jail sentence for common assault that was subsequently commuted to community service, and a nine-month ban from football.For Palace fans, the subject is sensitive. Some believe Simmons’ insults and Cantona’s response sparked bad blood between the two sets of supporters that ultimately led to the death of 35-year-old Palace fan Paul Nixon after a fight outside a pub when the two teams met later that season in an FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park.“We’d never really had a problem with United before the Cantona and Simmons incident, but they started off a chain of events that contributed to a man’s death,” Neil Witherow, a former Palace fanzine editor and longtime supporter, told The Athletic in 2020.The players then interrupt the movie scene, dribbling across the camera view.There is further dribbling around the studio, and a comedic cameo from Haaland and Tatum.Another high-profile guest was basketball star LeBron James, who has a lifetime deal with Nike. Like Cristiano Ronaldo, James is 41 and often faces questions about his retirement plans. The pair appear in a meeting with some suits discussing a script named ‘The GOAT’s Goodbye’.Ronaldo and James pass the script back and forth, with neither seemingly wanting to take the role on — implying neither is ready to retire.This is before Ronaldo escapes the meeting into an eerie set. Van Dijk slide-tackles Ronaldo, who chases the football into a rigged building, which explodes. Ronaldo emerges unscathed as Dr. Dre’s Still D.R.E. plays.Awkwardly, Cole Palmer is then one of more prominent players in the advert. He features alongside British rapper Central Cee. The Chelsea forward has struggled for form this season and didn’t make England’s 26-man World Cup squad.With the World Cup adverts filmed far in advance, Nike would have been short of surefire options from the England team. Captain Harry Kane is signed with Skechers, and Jude Bellingham, an Adidas athlete, is a key character in their Backyard Legends advert. Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze are both with New Balance. The biggest alternative name already signed with Nike would have been Marcus Rashford, who was named in Thomas Tuchel’s squad.Brazil’s Estevao also featured despite not making the squad for the World Cup. He suffered a grade four hamstring injury in April.After Estevao’s appearance, we finally see Haaland intervene. The Norway striker, who is playing in his first World Cup this summer, chose not to join the chasing pack around the studios and instead meditates with his body double Tatum.However, he ends up intervening at the last moment to beat a child to Vinicius Jr’s rabona cross.As he scores his goal, we cut to a man who it couldn’t have been an advert for the North American-based World Cup without — Jason Sudeikis in full Ted Lasso garb.Other appearances included Brazilian legend Ronaldinho and former Mexico international Jorge Campos, as well as two-time Ballon d’Or Feminin winner Alexia Putellas and Brazil women’s international Kerolin.Few preceding World Cup ads have featured so many cultural crossovers and celebrities. It’s another sign that this year’s North American edition is different.Whether it will be as revered as the World Cup adverts before it is yet to be seen, but clearly this edition is already popular. It has more than 14million views on YouTube, less than 24 hours after it was published.