South Park won’t return to television until next year but, according to Vanity Fair (via Variety), the team behind the successful animated series has a very good reason for the delay. During a recent interview, Trey Parker and Matt Stone indicated that the show won’t release new episodes this year in order to avoid the upcoming presidential election and the surrounding conversation. In addition to the political landscape influencing the release schedule of South Park, the duo is waiting for Paramount to determine if the studio will be sold or not. Talking about presidential elections specifically, Stone said:
“We’ve tried to do ‘South Park’ through four or five presidential elections, and it is such a hard thing to — it’s such a mind scramble, and it seems like it takes outsized importance.”
Parker added on to this, saying:
“Obviously, it’s fucking important, but it kind of takes over everything and we just have less fun.” Parker added. “I don’t know what more we could possibly say about Trump.”
Characters such as Kenny, Kyle (both voiced by Matt Stone), Eric and Stan (both voiced by Trey Parker) have made South Park an unforgettable pop culture icon that hasn’t been afraid to share its satirical takes regarding current events in the world. But as Parker mentioned, going through four presidential elections must’ve taken a toll on the creative team behind the series. South Park will return with new ideas once the election allows the animated production to move on towards different conversations about pop culture and politics.
The characters of South Park were last seen in a Paramount+ special titled “The End of Obesity”. The premise of the story followed Eric after a doctor informed him that his weight had become a major health risk for him. Eric and his friends are determined to recreate the formula for the only medicine that can help him, considering that the boy can’t afford the ridiculously expensive product. Even if South Park doesn’t release new episodes until next year, audiences have had plenty of stories related to the series to enjoy recently.
The Legacy of ‘South Park’
South Park has been entertaining audiences around the world with its unique sense of humor during the course of twenty-seven years. In that amount of time, a full series of the show was released every year. But everything changed when the pandemic hit and the series was sent to Paramount+. In recent years, the studio has been alternating the release schedule between television specials and full seasons of South Park. The fact that a full season won’t be released this year shouldn’t be a cause for concern for followers of the show, taking into account how the release schedule will become more stable once the animated hit comes back next year.
South Park won’t return until 2025. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.