A New Documentary Will Reveal How The Weeknd Created His Super Bowl Halftime Show
Following The Weeknd’s historic performance at the 2021 Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday, Feb. 7, Showtime revealed its plans for a documentary. The “Blinding Lights” singer brought stunning performances in beautifully planned sets like the mirror maze, and the network's documentary will reveal a 90-minute look into the backbones of the 13-minute performance. Yep, Showtime’s documentary about The Weeknd’s Super Bowl halftime show will be a behind-the-scenes look at the months of work leading up to the performance.
Announced on Friday, Feb. 12, the feature documentary The Show will look at the making of the 2021 Pepsi Super Bowl halftime show starring The Weeknd, focusing on the months preparation for the biggest musical performance of the year. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the showrunners had unusual obstacles to face. The documentary, directed by Netflix Becoming's Nadia Hallgren, is being produced by the Pepsi content studio and Boardwalk Pictures. There is no official release date as of publication, but it's set to drop later in 2021.
Halftime shows are notoriously elaborate, sometimes costing more than $10 million, per Reuters, and those involved in the production of the show spend months preparing for the big event. Per Variety, nearly 100 million viewers watched The Weeknd's halftime show performance. The Show is set to feature first-time halftime show executive producer Jesse Collins, as well as executive producers Roc Nation and others, who collaborated on the huge production during the pandemic.
Hallgren made a statement about the documentary, saying, “This historic year with Jesse Collins as the first Black EP of the Halftime Show brought an opportunity to tell a new story.” She continued, “We get a window into the process of a diverse team of executives and creatives working at the highest level, in front of and behind the camera. It’s fun to see these masters at work while they also uplift others." She added, "I hope this can inspire people to pursue big dreams."
Pepsi's VP of Marketing, Todd Kaplan, also spoke of The Show. “With our new documentary coming to Showtime, we are taking fans on the emotional and thrilling journey of what it takes to make the biggest show of the year – with the added complexity of doing so amidst a global pandemic," said Kaplan.
Other creatives featured in the behind-the-scenes take include The Weeknd's creative director La Mar Taylor, set designer Es Devlin, Lila Nikole (who also happens to be the first-ever Latina costume designer for the halftime show), choreographer to the stars Charm La’Donna, whose clientele includes Selena Gomez and Dua Lipa, and more.
While you'll need to wait a while to catch The Show on Showtime, you can ~still~ re-watch The Weeknd's Super Bowl halftime show performance to relive it again (and again).
