Fans worried about the animated series slowing down have nothing to fear as a South Park 2025 movie special is confirmed to be on the way.
The iconic adult animated comedy is entering its 28th year on the air in 2025, having produced 321 episodes, seven specials, and an Oscar-nominated movie.
However, production on the series has drawn to a crawl as of late, with only a single special hitting the airwaves in 2024 and no new season release for just the second time since the series' 1997 debut.
More South Park On the Way in 2025
South Park co-creator Matt Stone confirmed more of the beloved series is on the way in 2025 one of its near-feature-length specials primed and ready for early in the year.
This comes as searches for a potential South Park 2025 movie have run rampant online; however, those rumors remain unfounded with the future of the animated series remaining on the small screen.
Speaking with Bloomberg in November, Stone revealed why it has been taking so long for more of the series to see the light of day, as, the show took much of 2024 off (aside from its single Ozempic-themed special in May).
When asked if he sees an end in sight for the animated mainstay, Stone pulled the curtain back on what fans can expect from South Park in 2025, saying at the time that one movie special is planned to release in the "beginning" of the year, with more normal-length episodes planned for later in the year as well:
"[Kendrick Lamar is] very involved. And Dave Free is very involved. Every day they are working on it. But that is what we are doing, and then we will do ‘South Park.’ Beginning of next year, we are coming back with one episode, and a bunch more in the second half of 2025. But we are working on something."
Parker and Stone signed a massive new deal with Paramount in 2021, which included the production of 14 movie-length specials for Paramount+ (via Deadline) — one of which will be the upcoming 2025 movie special.
Since then, the South Park team has released seven of these specials, meaning there are at least seven more to be produced/released. This also includes potential full-length seasons for the series as well, of which the last was released in early 2023 (Season 26).
"We are working on a movie," he admitted, which is why they had to step away from South Park for a bit. The live-action project is set to be released next summer and is being developed by series co-creator Trey Parker along with hip-hop star Kendrick Lamar and Top Dawg Entertainment's Mike Free:
"We are working on a movie. We are doing a movie with Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free and their company. And we are working on it, and it will hopefully come out July 4th weekend, opposite ‘Jurassic Park’ which is pretty funny."
While the movie is said to not have anything to do with South Park, Stone admitted that it will still resonate with fans of the show's comedic stylings:
"I would say [it's a] comedy. It’s funny. Very funny."
As for whether projects like this new live-action movie will take the creators away from the animated series that put them on the map, Stone does not think so.
Reassuring worried fans, Stone posited, "We don’t have an end in sight," joking that they will keep making the show until they "reach the singularity and pass it off to [their] AI:"
"We don’t have an end in sight. And actually, and I will say, honestly, it is because it is still such an awesome sandbox. You know, we are working on a movie right now, a live-action movie, and when we get back to ‘South Park,’ it is going to be like, ‘Oh, right, here we go.’ I cannot wait to hang out with those characters again, to be cheesy about it, but we love doing ‘South Park.’ I think we will last long enough to reach the singularity and pass it off to our AI. That sounds crazy, but people are. But no, we have no plans."
What Is Next For South Park?
After a relatively paltry year for the franchise, it seems that South Park is ready to come back with a vengeance in 2025.
This will, according to creator Matt Stone, kick off with one of the series' now-iconic movie specials, which stream exclusively on Paramount+.
While this does not mean a new theatrical film set in the animated universe will see the light of day (something that has been rumored many times over the years), fans should be excited that Stone and the South Park creative team have not gotten bored of the show after nearly 30 years.
As Stone says, he sees the franchise as "a sandbox" that he and his fellow creatives working on the series get to play in, poking fun at the ever-more ridiculous real world.
Over the past couple of years, this has included satirizing the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise in the viral Ozempic medication, and even Hollywood itself (read about South Park's controversial 2023 Kathleen Kennedy joke here). And the show has shown no signs of slowing down.
While it is unclear what Stone's "a bunch more" comment means concerning the series' 2025 plans, fans have speculated that it could mean the long-awaited Season 27 could be on the way as well as another special or two to round out the year.
South Park is now streaming on Paramount+.
