‘South Park’ Mixes Up Genders, Ages and Races of Cartman and Co. in Paramount+ Special: ‘How Does This Even Make Any Sense?’ (Video)

Paramount+ has dropped the logline and trailer for its latest “South Park” special. “South Park: Joining the Panderverse” will debut in the U.S. on Oct. 27 exclusively on Paramount+.

The special will then be available in Canada a day later. Dates for the U.K., Australia and other international territories will be released at a later time.

The episode revolves around “Cartman’s deeply disturbing dreams portend the end of the life he knows and loves. The adults in South Park are also wrestling with their own life decisions as the advent of AI is turning their world upside down.”

The first clip for the special shows Cartman, Stan, Butters and Kenny as audiences have never seen them before: as adult women who in Cartman and Butter’s cases are of color. The only character who remains the same is Kyle.

“How does this even make any sense?” Kyle angrily asks in the teaser.

“It makes perfect sense,” PC Principal responds. “I think the problem is you.”

“Joining the Panderverse” will mark the fifth Paramount+ special from Matt Stone and Trey Parker. The first was “Post COVID,” followed by “Post COVID: The Return of COVID,” both of which premiered in 2021. Those were then followed by “The Streaming Wars” and “The Streaming Wars Part 2,” which premiered in 2022.

In 2021, Stone and Parker inked a deal with Paramount+, promising the streamer 14 exclusive specials. At the same time, the series was renewed through Season 30 on Comedy Central.

Though these specials have given fans more content from these beloved creators, they’ve also spawned legal action. In February, Warner Bros. Discovery, which currently has the exclusive streaming rights to “South Park” on Max, sued Paramount. WBD originally licensed “South Park” exclusively for its streaming service for more than $500 million. The suit boils down to two major complaints. Because new specials are being added to Paramount+, the argument is that this violates the exclusivity agreement Max had with the company. There’s also the issue of “South Park’s” shortened recent seasons.

The last three seasons of “South Park” have contained two, six and six episodes each. Originally, these shortened episode orders were blamed on COVID-19 delays. However, Warner Bros. Discovery said it was promised 30 new episodes over three seasons yet has only received 14 episodes to date. The company agreed to pay what originally came out to roughly $1.7 million for the exclusive streaming rights for each new episode.

In April, Paramount fired back with a $52 million countersuit against Warner Bros. Discovery.

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