Pepsi’s Super Bowl Commercial Stars a Cola-Loving Polar Bear — and Taika Waititi (Exclusive)

Pepsi has tapped Taika Waititi to direct — and appear in — its 2026 Super Bowl commercial.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker tells PEOPLE exclusively that he “jumped at the chance” to work on another Big Game spot after last year’s “pretty epic” Mountain Dew ad, in which Seal transformed into an actual seal.

The ad, titled “The Choice,” follows a polar bear who takes the Pepsi Challenge and is surprised to learn he preferred Pepsi Zero Sugar to Coke Zero Sugar in a blindfolded taste test.

(Coca-Cola, of course, has featured its own polar bear mascots in the brand’s advertising over the years.)

The bear then embarks on “a journey of self-discovery,” according to a press release, as he embraces “his newfound identity as a Pepsi lover.”

The spot, which is set to Queen’s “I Want to Break Free,” then sees the bear lying on a couch as his therapist (Waititi, in a playful cameo), tells him, “You’re not the only one. This can be heavy.”

“Tell me about your mother,” the Thor: Ragnarok director instructs.

The bear goes on a walk, where he spots a happy group drinking Pepsi in a restaurant and presses his paw longingly against the window.

Another bear then emerges to offer him a can, and the two are next seen embracing on a kiss cam at a concert.

The cola wars have “become such a memorable and deeply ingrained part of pop culture and, weirdly, of the human experience, if you’ve ever watched TV and grew up in the ’70s and ’80s and ’90s, and even earlier than that,” Waititi, 50, says.

The New Zealand native adds of his cameo, “I’ve always wanted to play a therapist because I’ve seen so many of them, so I just took a lot of what I’ve observed, and it was nice to get paid to play a therapist as opposed to paying a therapist.”

Waititi notes that he’s a big fan of Super Bowl commercials.

“I love just how every year, it’s just like they just get better and better and more entertaining,” he says. “It’s just such a fun part of the game too when you see the ad breaks. We don’t really have that sort of level of entertainment in New Zealand, so I’ve always loved that part.”

As for his own plans for game day, he says he’ll be watching from New Zealand this year.

“I don’t know if I can find enough people to come and replicate everything that you guys have when you guys watch the games,” he says. “That’s why I love doing it when I’m in the States. I like going to other people’s houses to watch the game, because they make such a huge effort and they put on such a big spread. Well, I’m just going to get wings, mate. I’m going to have a wings party.”