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The creators of "South Park" have confirmed that their anticipated film with Kendrick Lamar has been put on hold for the time being.
In a statement The Ankler published on Wednesday, September 9, Trey Parker and Matt Stone confirmed that the project, known as Whitney Springs, won't debut in theaters as planned.
“We take full responsibility for the schedule delay of this movie,” Stone and Parker said in a statement. “We apologize to our partners at pgLang and Paramount and we appreciate their patience. South Park and life’s circumstances have gotten in the way but we still believe in the project.”
Whitney Springs was set to be a musical comedy about reparations for slavery. According to IMDB, the film's synopsis is about "a black man interning as a slave reenactor at a living history museum [who] finds out that his white girlfriend's ancestors once owned his." The "Not Like Us" rapper and his pgLang partner, Dave Free, produced the film with Parker and Stone. In addition, Lamar contributed original, unreleased music for the film's soundtrack.
Paramount first picked up the film in 2022 and reportedly committed over $100 million to the project. The creators were set to collect the leftovers of the budget thanks to a negative pickup agreement. "South Park" writer Vernon Chatman penned the script, which was "f**king amazing," according to an anonymous source who read it.
Whitney Springs was initially scheduled to debut in theaters on July 4, 2025. However, the release date was pushed back to March 20, 2026, before the Paramount-Skydance merger closed. By November 2025, Paramount removed the film from its release schedule.
Neither Paramount nor Lamar has yet to comment on the shelved film.