Upper Deck Celebrates Summer Of 'Superman' With Exclusive Collaboration Bringing Together The Worlds Of Sports And Entertainment
Leading collectibles company enters into new licensing agreement to create 23XI Racing trading cards, introduces set debuting race car themed to DC Super Hero Superman
CARLSBAD, Calif., June 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Upper Deck, a worldwide sports and entertainment trading card manufacturer, in collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products, today announced an exclusive trading card set that combines DC Studios' first feature film, 'Superman,' and NASCAR's 23Xl Racing team. Through collaboration with NASCAR, this unique collecting experience marks the first trading card set with Upper Deck to produce 23XI Racing collectibles. Earlier this year, Upper Deck and 23XI announced an expansion of their relationship, which began in 2024. The first release debuts the 'Superman' x 23Xl race car, commissioned by title sponsor Upper Deck, before it hits the track with Tyler Reddick and the No. 45 team on June 28th for the NASCAR Cup Series race at EchoPark Speedway outside of Atlanta. The trading card set and race car debut before 'Superman,' from Writer/Director James Gunn, soars into theaters and IMAX® nationwide on July 11, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
'We're constantly exploring new ways fans can enjoy and collect their favorite athletes and characters, and what better way to kick off the summer of 'Superman' than with an exciting crossover that marries the DC cinematic universe with the world of NASCAR,' said Upper Deck President Jason Masherah. 'We continue to expand our footprint in the sports collectibles industry, bringing different sports to the forefront with innovative collecting experiences that fans and collectors can't find anywhere else. I can't wait to see how Superman and racing fans react to these first trading cards with the 23XI collectible license in conjunction with NASCAR.'
To celebrate this unprecedented collaboration, collectors can now purchase the first of two trading card drops featuring the car design on Upper Deck e-Pack®, the premier online trading card and collectibles platform, with the second one coming race-day, June 28. Steve Lauletta, President of 23XI Racing, added, 'Our goal at 23XI is always to raise the bar and connect with fans in creative ways, including how they collect and engage with our drivers. Through our relationship with Upper Deck, we continue to deliver unique experiences that fans can cherish forever.'
The "Superman" x 23XI Upper Deck design will be featured on Tyler Reddick's No. 45 Toyota Camry XSE when the NASCAR Cup Series competes at EchoPark Speedway, formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway, on June 28th, which will be the first 2025 Cup Series race to air live on TNT (7 p.m. ET).
Fans can keep an eye for additional 23XI and NASCAR trading cards at UpperDeckEpack.com.
About Upper DeckUpper Deck is a global entertainment company creating trading cards, memorabilia, collectibles, games, and online platforms that deliver the experiences collectors crave. Upper Deck has set the unmatched industry standard for quality, authenticity, and innovation, and continues to bring generations of fans closer to their favorite athletes and characters with unique and authentic sports and entertainment product offerings, as well as its digital trading ecosystem. The company prides itself on creating collectibles that produce invaluable experiences for sports and entertainment's most dedicated and loyal fans, with a goal to deliver excellence to the community across the most coveted properties as a means to develop memorable moments for collectors of all kinds.
Find more information at http://www.upperdeck.com or follow us on Facebook (/UpperDeck; /UpperDeckEnt) Instagram (UpperDeckSports; UpperDeckEnt), X (formerly known as Twitter) (UpperDeckSports; UpperDeckEnt) and YouTube (UDvids).
Media Contact:Matt Burkey, matt@carvecomms.com
About 'Superman''Superman,' DC Studios' first feature film to hit the big screen, is set to soar into theaters worldwide this summer from Warner Bros. Pictures. In his signature style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a Superman who's driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness of humankind. DC Studios heads Peter Safran and Gunn are producing the film, which Gunn directs from his own screenplay, based on characters from DC, Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
DC Studios Presents a Troll Court Entertainment/The Safran Company Production, A James Gunn Film, 'Superman,' which will be in theaters and IMAX® nationwide on July 11, 2025, and internationally beginning 9 July 2025, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
About Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products (WBDGCP), part of Warner Bros. Discovery's Revenue & Strategy division, extends the company's powerful portfolio of entertainment brands and franchises into the lives of fans around the world. WBDGCP partners with best-in-class licensees globally on award-winning toy, fashion, home décor and publishing programs inspired by the biggest franchises from Warner Bros.' film, television, animation, and games studios, HBO, Discovery, DC, Cartoon Network, HGTV, Eurosport, Adult Swim, and more. With innovative global licensing and merchandising programs, retail initiatives, and promotional partnerships, WBDGCP is one of the leading licensing and retail merchandising organizations in the world.
About 23XI Racing23XI Racing – pronounced twenty-three eleven – was founded by NBA legend Michael Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin in 2020. With rising NASCAR star Bubba Wallace selected to drive the No. 23 Toyota Camry, the team made its NASCAR Cup Series debut in the 2021 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. Wallace made history on October 4, 2021, when he captured his first career Cup Series win, becoming just the second African American to win in the Cup Series, and earning 23XI its first-ever victory. 23XI expanded to a two-car organization in 2022 with Cup Series Champion Kurt Busch driving the No. 45 Toyota Camry. With a win at Kansas Speedway in May of 2022, Busch earned 23XI the team's first-ever playoff berth. In 2024, Tyler Reddick won the Regular Season Championship and raced to a spot in the Championship 4, a first for both the team and Reddick. 23XI currently features the lineup of Bubba Wallace in the No. 23 Toyota Camry XSE, Tyler Reddick in the No. 45 Toyota Camry XSE, Riley Herbst in the No. 35 Toyota Camry XSE and Corey Heim as the team's development driver. The team operates out of Airspeed, a state-of-the-art facility in Huntersville, N.C. that opened in January of 2024.
ABOUT NASCARThe National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is the sanctioning body for the No. 1 form of motorsports in the United States and owner of 14 of the nation's major motorsports entertainment facilities. NASCAR sanctions races in three national series (NASCAR Cup Series™, NASCAR Xfinity Series™, and NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series™), four international series (NASCAR Brasil Series, NASCAR Canada Series, NASCAR Mexico Series, NASCAR Whelen Euro Series), four regional series (ARCA Menards Series, ARCA Menards Series East & West and the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour) and a local grassroots series (NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series). The International Motor Sports Association™ (IMSA®) governs the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship™, the premier U.S. sports car series. NASCAR also owns Motor Racing Network, Racing Electronics, and ONE DAYTONA. Based in Daytona Beach, Florida, with offices in five cities across North America, NASCAR sanctions more than 1,200 races annually in 11 countries and more than 30 U.S. states.For more information visit www.NASCAR.com and www.IMSA.com, and follow NASCAR on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, X and Snapchat.Sign in to access your portfolio
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Gizmodo
26 minutes ago
- Gizmodo
West End Games' Classic ‘Star Wars' RPG Is Still Setting the Blueprint for Its Universe
In the years since Lucasfilm overhauled Star Wars continuity—reclassifying years of Expanded Universe material as 'Legends' before wiping a clean slate of continuity it has developed over the last decade-plus—much of what has been rebuilt has been done so off of the back of re-canonizing elements of that old material. In some ways re-imagined, in others just lifted wholesale, the journey of modern Star Wars is as much about adding new stories as it is weaving the old ones back into them. There are perhaps two pillars that define the reconstructive effort above all. The story of Star Wars' future, as in that in the wake of the events of Return of the Jedi, has somehow inexplicably turned to 1994's The Courtship of Princess Leia as its guiding light. But the story of Star Wars' recent past, the trajectory of the rise of the Imperial machine that has been a richly delved period of exploration in everything from Andor to Bad Batch, from games, comics, and books, to movies like Rogue One and Solo? That's been West End Games' Star Wars RPG. First published in 1987, Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game spent over a decade filling out the background of the world before and after the original Star Wars trilogy across multiple editions and a plethora of sourcebooks. Without much to go on beyond the material Marvel's ongoing Star Wars comic series had developed at the time (itself coming to an end the year West End Games' Star Wars story began), the RPG would become an early groundwork for what would become the beginning of the Star Wars Expanded Universe as we would come to know it in the early 1990s. From species names to Rebel Alliance command structures, from events that still resonate now like the Ghorman Massacre depicted in Andor, Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game was the right combination of coming along at the perfect time and its creatives being given the exact level of free reign to create a perfect sandbox of Star Wars creation. And create WEG did, with dozens of intricate sourcebooks that didn't just cover the broad strokes of what it would mean to have a roleplaying game experience in Star Wars' galaxy, but the nittiest, grittiest details, many of which didn't just go on to shape the Expanded Universe when it began in earnest, but expand even further with the addition of the material created there, delving further and further into Star Wars' past with supplements based on the Tales of the Jedi comics, or Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy (itself shaped by the early writings of the RPG, given to Zahn as a guideline). It wasn't just raw informational data that WEG's books provided to shape the EU (and in turn modern continuity), but style and tone. This is most keenly felt in Greg Gorden's Imperial Sourcebook, which does a deep dive into details about different facets of the Empire's structure, from intelligence to military, and also explores things like COMPNOR—the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order, essentially the political superstructure of Imperial power—to elucidate the specific fascistic character of the Empire's oppressive tactics. But beyond the actual material itself, one major thing that still remains influential in visions of contemporary Star Wars, is how West End Games taught its writers to write Star Wars. West End Games' Star Wars style guide had a bit of a viral moment a decade ago when it re-emerged on the internet (at places like this very website!), to compare and contrast how its dos and don't matched up with what was then the nascent status of modern Star Wars in the wake of the reboot of canon and the release of The Force Awakens. But while the gift of hindsight can be enjoyable, WEG's advise on what made good Star Wars can still be felt throughout the very best of the material that we're getting today. The style guide pushed writers to be expansive and additive to Star Wars' world, rather than to simply play in what was already in the toybox. Familiar characters were to be few and far between, moral storytelling to be less clear-cut, with villains (new villains!) that had motivation beyond evil for evil's sake. Again, its approach to stories of the Empire were some of its most fascinating, pushing writers to remember that the Empire was made up of genuinely awful people, but also a galaxy of citizenry who had little choice than to conform to the grip of Empire, and who became its willing tool was different to just a regular person with their own wants and needs. Star Wars is a broad sandbox, but West End Games pitched an enduring vision of it that strove for maturity and intelligence, that took the base framework and world of the original movies and genuinely pushed them into new and compelling territories in order to give players a rich and thriving universe to play in. There's an argument to be made, of course, that not all Star Wars should adhere to this tone or particular frame of interest: WEG's vision of Star Wars leaned more into the military sci-fi of its view of the Imperial/Rebel conflict, and not necessarily too far into Star Wars' space fantasy roots, an equally important aspect of the universe. But it's remarkable to see how what has become some of the very best of Star Wars in the modern day—across books, television, comics, games, and movies—carry so much of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game's heritage, not just in reference to the worlds, names, places, and events it first explored, but in the tonal vision it had for the galaxy far, far away. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.


Fast Company
27 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Astroworld is back in the spotlight and survivors are sharing haunting stories on TikTok
Astroworld is back in the news, and social media has some thoughts. In November 2021, a deadly crowd surge at Travis Scott's Astroworld music festival claimed the lives of 10 people. The then-annual event, held in the rapper's hometown of Houston, became one of the worst concert tragedies in U.S. history. It is now the subject of the new Netflix documentary Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy. With renewed interest in the incident, survivors have taken to social media to share their own footage from the event. 'Only if I knew bro,' one attendee posted on TikTok over footage of himself in the crowd. The audio accompanying the clip is taken from the documentary: 'It started getting pretty hectic,' one survivor says. 'I'm like 'Oh my god I can't take a deep breath,'' adds another. 'Since everyone else is sharing their Astroworld experience,' another TikTok user wrote in the caption of a clip, which shows him tightly packed in the crowd as Scott performs. 'Not too long after this I got bumped into due to the crowd swaying and ended up falling on top of someone in the fetal position,' he wrote. 'We ended up getting out but man it was a struggle.' In other horrifying footage, the panicking audience can be heard calling for help. 'I've never posted this video before, rest in peace to all innocent lives lost,' the closed captions read over the video. Even before Scott took the stage, the crowd seemed to sense something was wrong. 'We are gonna die,' one attendee 'jokes' in a clip, now with 10.3 million views, filming the unsafe conditions. 'Saying this as a joke but on the inside this was a real feeling,' she wrote in the closed captions. 'This about to be bad when it starts,' another can be heard saying. 'Bro literally called it,' the captions add. 'I believe Astroworld 2021 was not an accident,' crowd safety expert Scott Davidson says in the documentary. 'It was an inevitability due to the lack of foresight and the abandonment of basic safety protocols.' Nearly 5,000 people were injured as a result of the crush. The Netflix documentary, which premiered on June 10, features interviews with several survivors. In total, 10 people lost their lives: Axel Acosta, Danish Baig, Rudy Peña, Madison Dubiski, Franco Patiño, Jacob Jurinek, John Hilgert, Bharti Shahani, Brianna Rodriguez, and Ezra Blount, who was just nine years old.


Forbes
28 minutes ago
- Forbes
Gailard Sartain, ‘Hee Haw' Star, Dies At 81
Los Angeles, CA - 1991: Gailard Sartain promotional photo for the ABC tv series 'Davis Rules', ... More episode 'The Principle', the original unaired pilot. (Photo by Sharon M Beard /American Broadcasting Companies via Getty Images) Gailard Sartain, the Southern character actor and comedian who appeared on the long-running country western-themed variety hour Hee Haw, died Tuesday, June 17 following a long illness. He was 81. His death was announced on Facebook by The Church Studio, a recording studio in Tulsa, Oklahoma where Sartain's wife Mary Jo volunteers. Born September 18, 1943 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Gailard Sartain was a successful illustrator who broke into show business through the creation of a late-night local comedy program he hosted in Tulsa entitled The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting. After being discovered by a talent scout, Sartain was hired in 1972 as a regular on Hee Haw, which was inspired by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. A victim of the infamous "rural purge," CBS canceled Hee Haw in 1971 (along with sitcoms The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres and Mayberry R.F.D.). But it immediately found a new home in first-run syndication and remained on the air until 1993. Sartain was a cast member for 19 seasons. Sartain also served as a regular on the short-lived variety series Cher from 1975 to 1976, Keep on Truckin' in 1975, and Shields and Yarnell in 1978. He made his film debut with an uncredited cameo in Nashville in 1975, and was a larger presence in The Buddy Holly Story as 'Big Bopper' in 1978 and as B.B. Muldoon in Roadie in 1980. (Top L-R) Actors Meat Loaf and Art Carney (Bottom L-R) Actor Gailard Sartain and actress Kaki Hunter ... More on set of the United Artist movie "Roadie" in 1980. (Photo by Michael) Other films on Sartain's resume included Mississippi Burning, The Outsiders, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Grifters, The Replacements and The Patriot. He was also known for his roles in three of the Ernest P. Worrell films starring Jim Varney, and the 13-episode Hey Vern, It's Ernest! television series in 1988. Sartain's final film role was in Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown in 2005.