South Park Creators Sign Massive Deal For New Seasons and 14 Original Movies
When South Park first hit our screens back in 1997, few could have imagined it sticking around for very long. Even the show's biggest fans wouldn't have bet on it still being around and still courting controversy more than two decades later. Trey Parker and Matt Stone's outrageous sitcom has had quite the meteoric rise, from starting life as a crudely animated 'viral' video Christmas card that circulated in the pre-internet days, to becoming the second-longest-running series in US adult animation.
Some fans and observers have reported seeing signs that Parker and Stone were getting ready to call it a day for some time now. If that was ever the case, they have seemed to have had a change in heart as the pair have inked a gigantic deal that will keep Cartman, Stan, Kyle, Kenny and the rest of the residents of South Park on the air for some time.
When you hit the big time, you no longer have to wait for renewal one season at a time. The new deal with Viacom CBS' MTV Entertainment Studios includes an additional three 10-episode seasons, that will see the series is still on the air until at least 2027 (which will be the 30th Season). This deal is similar to the one Adult Swim signed for Rick and Morty back in 2018.
But that's not all. The deal also includes producing a whopping 14 new movies for Viacom CBS' streaming service Paramount+. South Park's finest hour was arguably its one theatrical noting, the ingenious South Park The Movie: Bigger, Longer And Uncut. We wouldn't anticipate the new movies to be in the same vein- it would be smarter to expect them to more resemble the recent Pandemic and Vaccination specials (the success of which seems to have been one of the reasons for this deal).
Parker and Stone said:
Comedy Central has been our home for 25 years and we’re really happy that they’ve made a commitment to us for the next 75 years. When we came to ViacomCBS with a different way to produce the show during the pandemic, Chris (McCarthy), Nina (Diaz), Keyes (Hill-Edgar) and Tanya (Giles) were immediately supportive and enabled us to try something new that turned out to be really well received. We can’t wait to get back to doing traditional South Park episodes but now we can also try out new formats. It’s great to have partners who will always take a chance with us.
The deal is reported to be worth $900 million over the six-year period. and makes Parker and Stone's Park County production company worth north of $1 billion. Things are getting cereal, you guys.
There's still more though, as it's also been reported that the creators are also working on a new South Park video game. The franchise spawned fairly shoddy licenced games early on its life, but more recent games have had involvement from the creators and were a marked improvement. The Stick Of Truth and Fractured But Whole are a pair of RPG parodies from Ubisoft that were hist with fans and gamers. These two games were 2D and played out much like interactive episodes of the show. The new game however is reported to be 3D. No other details are known at this stage.
