“Drop the new music,” Beyonce said, hovering over the Earth in a new Verizon ad that aired during the Super Bowl, thrilling and confusing fans eager to hear fresh material from the Grammy-winning pop icon.

Whether or not Beyonce actually plans to release any new music remains to be seen, but we did notice a major Alabama connection in the commercial: Samford University graduate Tony Hale.

The “Arrested Development” star appeared to channel his “Veep” personal assistant character Gary Walsh, telling Beyonce she’d broken the internet during a music video shoot, but challenging her to break Verizon’s 5G network.

“I bet you can break that,” Hale tells the “Renaissance” artist, to which she replies, “Bet I can.”

She opens a lemonade stand (referencing her 2016 album of the same name), switches to saxophone, creates her own branded artificial intelligence, launches “Bar-Bey” for the Barbie fans, and even performs in outer space — but Hale informs her none of it “broke” the network.

This calls for Beyonce to release this transmission: “OK. They ready. Drop the new music.”

Beyonce has not officially announced the release of any new music. Her last album “Renaissance” came in 2022.

Born in West Point, New York, Hale graduated from Samford University in Birmingham. The two-time Emmy winner is best known for his supporting role in “Veep,” an HBO political comedy that aired 2012-2019. He’s also known for his work in “Arrested Development,” and has credits in many movies and TV shows.

Hale graduated from Samford University in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. The actor has talked about his fondness for Birmingham during talk-show interviews, and has returned to the city fairly often to visit friends. His wife, makeup artist Martel Thompson, is from Anniston; the couple has a teenage daughter, Loy Ann Hale.

Film credits include “The Heat,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip,” “Hocus Pocus 2,” “The Angry Birds Movie” and “Toy Story 4.” In the latter, he voiced the popular character Forky, whom he reprised in the Disney+ series “Forky Asks a Question.”