Kendrick Lamar’s untitled comedy won’t debut on America’s birthday after all. Paramount, the studio behind the closely guarded movie from Lamar and “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, has been delayed from July 4, 2025 to March 20, 2026.
Paramount didn’t give a reason for the delay. However, Lamar will be away for much of the spring and summer on his Grand National stadium tour, which kicks off on April 19 in Minnesota and concludes on Aug. 19 in Sweden. On its new date, the yet-to-be-titled film will open on the same day as Liongate’s faith-based “I Can Only Imagine” sequel with Dennis Quaid.
The change in release plans was announced ahead of CinemaCon, the annual convention of movie theater owners that’s unfolding this week in Las Vegas. Paramount, as well as Disney, Universal, Sony, Warner Bros., Universal and Amazon MGM will unveil presentations that are designed to hype the upcoming year’s slate of films.
As for Lamar’s movie, not a single detail — not the cast, logline or title — has been revealed at this point. What is known, however, is the live-action comedy is written by comedian Vernon Chatman and follows a young Black man who interns as a slave re-enactor at a living history museum and discovers that his white girlfriend’s forefathers once owned his ancestors.
Lamar, fresh off several Grammy wins, a much-lauded Super Bowl halftime performance and headline-making feud with Drake, is the Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper of albums such as “Damn,” “To Pimp a Butterfly” and “GNX.” He also produced the soundtrack for Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which earned an Oscar nomination for best song for “All the Stars.”
Stone and Parker, in addition to creating the long-running “South Park” television show, are also behind 1999’s feature “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut” and the Broadway musical “Book of Mormon.”