Why is South Park not returning before 2025? Explained

As per an interview released earlier today, there's some bad news for fans of South Park. As per the creators, the acclaimed animated show won't return in 2024. Moreover, defying popular expectations, the show will also not include any form of commentary on the upcoming Presidential Election, a move the creators deemed to be intentional.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the show, revealed in a recent interview with Vanity Fair that they will intentionally skip the Presidential Election from their show because they have no interest in publicly criticizing Trump anymore. Hence, the delay is partly because they want to skip the elections and come up with a fresh set in 2025.

Moreover, Parker also revealed that they were waiting for Paramount to figure out some things before moving forward, possibly referring to the agreed sale to Skydance.

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South Park creators break down their decision to exclude this Presidential Election

South Park is the kind of show that incorporates a lot of commentary about everything going on around the world. The show has gone over the elections multiple times over the years, but it seems that the creators are now finally tired of it and are willing to exclude it this time.

Talking about skipping the election, Stone told Vanity Fair:

"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:

"Obviously, it’s fucking important, but it kind of takes over everything and we just have less fun...I don’t know what more we could possibly say about Trump."

That seemed to explain their point about the elections, but neither of the creators opened up about the Paramount angle that Parker mentioned.

However, we can assume that this was a reference to Paramount's proposed sale to Skydance. The two companies reportedly reached a sale agreement in early July. The deal is worth a reported $8 billion.

It has not been specified when the new episodes of South Park will come in 2025. The frequency has been quite low in the past couple of years with the last set of episodes dropping back in 2023. Since then, there have been three specials, which have also received great acclaim.

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What is South Park all about?

South Park is an animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for Comedy Central. With no linear storytelling, the show revolves around four boys, Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick, whose day-to-day activities and interactions are used as means of social and political commentary.

The official synopsis for the show reads:

"Stan, Kyle, Eric and Kenny are four foul-mouthed friends who live in South Park. They have several bizarre misadventures in and around town, involving both the ordinary and supernatural."

While the voice cast of the show varies, Stone and Parker have voiced nearly all the male characters while Mary Kay Bergman voiced the majority of female characters.

It began airing on August 13, 1997, and has since aired over 300 episodes. The show received acclaim for its dark humor, satirical approach and comic characters. It's still one of Comedy Central's most successful and longest-running programs.

The 26th and latest season - comprising six episodes - premiered on February 8, 2023. You can stream the show on HBO Max.