2024 marked a down year forSouth Park. For only the second time sincethe long-running adult animated comedybegan in 1997, the series went a year without releasing any new episodes. The only new content set in the sleepy little mountain town in Colorado was another Paramount+ movie special,The End of Obesity, released in May, and the poorly-received gameSouth Park: Snow Day. It marked an unusual break for a series that has thus far spawned 321 episodes and theOscar-nominatedBigger, Longer, & Uncut, prompting some speculation as to what caused the freeze in production. Fortunately for fans who have been eagerly awaiting Season 27, the wait shouldn’t be much longer. Series co-creatorMatt Stonehas since confirmed in November that 2025 won’t be as dry with both a new season and a new Paramount+ special on the way.
Stone appeared onBloomberg Livefor a wide-ranging discussion where he promised that his andTrey Parker’s flagship show would be back early this year with a special before getting back on track with “a bunch more episodes” sometime further down the line “in the second half of 2025.” That meansStan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny are remaining on the small screendespite the rampant rumors of another potential big-screen adventure. Given the recent track record under Paramount in which they’ve tried to release a mix of specials and episodes each year, the new season will likelystick to around six episodes or so, though nothing is confirmed yet.
As for why Season 27 has taken so long, in particular, it partly comes down to other projects. Stone and Parker have indeed been toiling away at a feature-length production, just not one involvingSouth Parkin any way. “We are working on a movie. Weare doing a movie with Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free and their company,” Stone continued. “And we are working on it, and it will hopefully come out July 4th weekend, oppositeJurassic Parkwhich is pretty funny.” He teased that this untitled mystery projectwill be a live-action comedy with heavy involvement from the multi-Grammy-winning rap icon, but further details will have to wait until it gets closer to release.
Matt Stone Doesn’t See ‘South Park’ Ending Any Time Soon
Back in 2021, Stone and Parker signeda gargantuan deal with Paramount Global (then ViacomCBS) worth $900 millionthat would secureSouth Parkfor the foreseeable future with 14 more movie specials guaranteed, and six seasons lined up for Comedy Central through 2027. Coming up on four years later, they still have a ways to go to fulfill that agreement.The End of Obesitymarkedthe series’s seventh special thus far, leaving seven more to fill out the streamer’s catalog. Though the long delay between the show’s core episodes may seem a bit concerning, Stone assures that the team isn’t running out of steam just yet. When asked specifically about the long-term future of the show, he commented onthe nature ofSouth Parkas a “sandbox” for their creativity and a reprieve of sorts for everyone after working on other projects:
"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."
Starting later this year with the expiration ofSouth Park’s deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, all episodes willbe available to stream on Paramount+. In the meantime, all episodes can be found on Max while the specials remain Paramount exclusives. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on Season 27 and the new special as news comes out.
South Park
Follows the misadventures of four irreverent grade-schoolers in the quiet, dysfunctional town of South Park, Colorado.
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