Merlins Rebirth — Inspired by Eras Tour

Merlins began life as an energy drink — launched at 30 Rock in collaboration with NBC, alongside a short-form mini-movie titled Merlin. It was an ambitious moment rooted in storytelling, culture, and momentum.

Years later, the rebirth of Merlins emerged from a different spark.

Inspired by the scale, emotional clarity, and cultural impact of the Eras Tour by Taylor Swift, Merlins began re-imagining what a modern brand could be — not as a product first, but as an experience. An immersive exhibition. A journey through eras. A living archive of moments, emotion, and craft.

That vision led us to Florence, Italy, where we spent a year in close collaboration with our creative partners at Crossmedia Group. Together, we explored how music, narrative, technology, and physical space could merge into something audiences don’t just see, but step into and created the design for The Eras Tour Exhibition for Taylor Swifts tour.

With the release of Taylor Swift: The End of an Eras , Taylor wrote the closing of that chapter through its documentary on Disney+, the Eras Tour immersive experience may now never fully materialize in the form first envisioned. Sometimes a story is told so completely on screen that the moment itself becomes preserved — finished, sealed, and definitive.

But endings don’t erase intention. They simply reframe it.

If there’s one thing Merlins has always stood for, it’s the willingness to try. To reach. To build anyway — even when the path changes.

This chapter remains a journal entry — unfinished, honest, and open. And perhaps, in another era, it becomes something more.

This entry reflects a moment in Merlins evolution. Here’s what inspired us. Here is what almost happened revealed something else instead. A pivot. Towards immersive experiences for sport teams.

Toward films rooted in culture, athletes, and community. From that moment, a different adventure began – alongside creative partners who had brought the worlds of Matisse, Monet, and Van Gogh to life.

Early Development -The Road to LA28 – Lacrosse Pilot and Series

Lacrosse returns to the Los Angeles Olympic Games after one hundred and twenty years—marking a historic moment for one of the world’s oldest team sports.

Lacrosse is the national sport of Canada and the Creator’s Game, first played by Indigenous peoples. Over generations, it has evolved into a truly global sport, now played across Pakistan, China, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and South America.

Merlins Sports is drawn to the ethos of the game—its speed, skill, physicality, and creativity. Lacrosse is raw and expressive, demanding both discipline and imagination from those who play it.

The sport exists in multiple forms:

  • Box lacrosse, played in hockey rinks
  • Field lacrosse, played globally
  • Sixes, a fast-paced format built around transition, contact, and constant motion, with minimal defensive structure

Sixes is also the Olympic format for both men’s and women’s competition.

With the support of several professional lacrosse teams granting access, we are beginning to capture the essence of the sport—fan culture, community support, and the realities faced by athletes striving to compete at the highest level.

Now in the early stages of development, our focus is on shaping a pilot that reflects not just the modern game, but the spirit and origins of lacrosse itself—remaining true to the founders of the game while exploring where it is headed next.

Champagne Carbon – From Soil to Speed

The Carbon Champagne documentary development began not as a pitch, but as a conversation — with the owner and managing partner of Champagne Carbon. What emerged was a shared instinct: this was not simply a product story, but a philosophy worth bringing to the screen and beyond.

Merlins’ roots trace back to an energy drink and an early racing partnership with a former Formula 1 driver. That lineage — speed, risk, reinvention — made Carbon a natural subject. From the outset, the question wasn’t whether to tell the story, but how to tell it cinematically.

Those early discussions unfolded during Toronto International Film Festival, where ideas evolved organically: structure, tone, access, and the kind of intimacy that could ground a luxury brand in human truth. The concept sharpened when Netflix brought Champagne Problems to its platform, reigniting global curiosity around Champagne as culture — not commodity.

From there, the vision became experiential. Imagine an acclaimed chef hosting a private dinner in Champagne, welcoming guests arriving from Cannes Film Festival or the French Grand Prix. Conversations flow over courses and glasses; ideas collide. The camera listens as much as it looks.

At its core, this is a story about those who carry the Merlin within — the unconventional, the builders who venture into uncharted territory. Carbon is the smallest Champagne house in Champagne, yet it dared to create a carbon-fiber bottle and take it all the way to the podium of Formula 1, and far beyond.

True to Merlins’ ethos — screen to streets — the film stays grounded in the soil that gives the grapes their magic. We return, again and again, to the land, the roots, the patience. In spirit, it echoes The Grapes of Wrath: resilience, belief, and the quiet power of origins.

This is not a luxury documentary.

It is a human one — poured slowly, and meant to be shared.

Netflix, FIFA & Merlins Street Teams

Merlins Sports officially launches at the FIFA World Cup 2026.

Not inside the stadiums, but in the streets — where the real energy of the game lives.

We have always believed that sport does not begin at kickoff, nor does it end with the final whistle. Sport lives in cafés, on sidewalks, in late-night debates, spontaneous chants, pickup games, family traditions, and the quiet moments before crowds arrive. Fans are everything. Their passion is the heartbeat of the game.

From the Screen to the Streets

As Netflix launches FIFA gaming exclusively on its platform, Merlins Sports activates a parallel, real-world experience — connecting digital fandom to human connection.

Our Merlins Street Teams will be deployed across three iconic World Cup cities:

  • Vancouver
  • Toronto
  • Mexico City

This is Screen to Streets in its purest form.

Street Teams will meet fans where they already gather — fan zones, public squares, cafés, transit hubs, pop-up pitches, and unexpected corners of each city. The mission is simple: capture the soul of the World Cup through the people who live it.

Live, Raw, Unfiltered

Every day during the tournament, Merlins Street Teams will broadcast live on YouTube, turning the streets into a global stage.

No scripts.

No polished studio walls.

Just authentic moments — voices, faces, emotions — happening in real time.

Fans won’t just watch the World Cup.

They’ll become part of it.

World Cup 2026 Micro Dramas

Alongside the live broadcasts, Merlins Sports will premiere our FIFA World Cup 2026 Micro Dramas — short-form, cinematic stories captured on the streets during the tournament.

These micro dramas explore:

  • First-time World Cup fans experiencing the atmosphere
  • Families passing football traditions across generations
  • Street debates, rivalries, joy, heartbreak, and hope
  • The cultural identity of each host city through football

Each piece is designed to be immediate, emotional, and timeless — snapshots of a World Cup seen from the ground up.

Why This Matters

The World Cup is more than matches.

It is movement, migration, music, language, food, and shared belief.

Merlins Sports exists to document that space between sport and humanity — the moments cameras usually miss, but fans never forget.

FIFA World Cup 2026 marks the beginning of a new chapter for Merlins Sports:

a global platform built on storytelling, community, and real fan energy — from the screen to the streets, and out into the world.

— Merlins Sports Entertainment