Walmart has some friends in high places and a lot of money. The shopping chain brought out the big guns withStar Wars,Toy Story,Bill & Ted, Sam Jones asFlash Gordon, and more for their massiveSuper Bowlcommercial. It’s ridiculous how much pop culture is stuffed into the 60-second ad and dizzying to think of how much money they must have had to shell out in order to get this thing done with all of the characters and voices coming together.
Jim Jones as Flash Gordonis going to be enough for a lot of people to get excited about Walmart’s Super Bowl commercial, which is titled Famous Visitors. But there is plenty to look at here. Alex Winter shows up in the iconic phonebooth from theBill & Tedfranchise. Winter is back as the current Bill S. Preston Esquire, alongside a younger version of himself to pick up some beer and other items. He trips out when he sees Flash Gordon land to pick up some curbside groceries.
Anthony Daniels reprises his Star Wars role as C-3PO, alongside R2-D2 in the Walmart commercial. The two iconic droids are lost in the desert and late to pick up their WD-40 from the retail giant. The Millennium Falcon can be seen in the background. Even theStar TrekUSS Enterprise makes an appearance in the commercial. Buzz Lightyear from theToy Storyfranchise is seen soaring into the air beforedescending down to Walmartto pick up some necessities. It’s not clear what Buzz is buying, but maybe he’s getting some batteries.
Frank the Pug fromMen In Blackalso makes a pretty solid cameo in the Walmart commercial, along with a head-scratching nod to Denis Villeneuve’sArrival, which he probably had nothing to do with.Mars Attacks!,The LEGO Movie, and more are featured in the ad. The mega chain did something similar last year when they utilized a bunch of famous vehicles from various corners of pop culture. Janey Whiteside, Executive Vice President and chief customer officer at Walmart, said customer feedback was the driving force behind the pop culture return, but Walmart “wanted to take that idea and really lean into it at the next level.”
The next level is here, that’s for sure. Alex Winter talked about the new Walmart Super Bowl commercial and says that they tried to incorporatefootage from the upcoming Bill & Ted Face the Music. “Thematically we couldn’t figure out a way to make it work,” says Winter. That would have been most excellent, but the new ad is a way to get Bill and Ted back out into the public consciousness before the movie hits theaters this summer. One has to wonder how much money Walmart had to pay to get ahold of all of these huge properties. You can check out the new commercial below, thanks to the Walmart YouTube channel.
