Donald Glover announces two final Childish Gambino albums

Donald Glover has announced that he will release just two more albums as his musical alter-ego Childish Gambino.

The actor, artist and filmmaker, 40, was behind one of this year’s most acclaimed new television shows, Mr & Mrs Smith.

He has so far released four records as Childish Gambino, and won the Grammy for Song of the Year for his 2018 release “This Is America”.

As Variety reports, Glover announced during an Instagram livestream on Sunday (14 April) that he plans to retire Childish Gambino following two further releases.

His next record will be Atavista, a “finished” version of his surprise 2020 album 3.15.20.

“The project I put out, 3.15.20 that no one’s ever heard of, people didn’t even know I put it out, it was originally titled Atavista, it was supposed to be Atavista,” he explained.

“But we put it out quickly, I didn’t master or mix it, I just kind of put it out. I was going through a lot, n****s thought everybody was going to die because it was the pandemic. We put it out, we finished it, it’s Atavista, we’re putting that out.”

He then added that a final Childish Gambino album will follow. “But then after that, there’s a Childish Gambino album, the final Childish Gambino album - a soundtrack for the fans.”

He revealed that this last record will be titled Bando Storm and the New World and will serve as the soundtrack to an upcoming film of the same name.

He cited Prince’s 1989 soundtrack album Batman as an inspiration.

No release date has been announced for either record, although Glover did reveal that a music video for single “Little Foot Big Foot” (which was originally titled “35.31”) will be directed by longtime collaborator Hiro Murai and should be released in “the next couple weeks.”

Earlier this year, Glover revealed in an interview with The Independent that he married his partner of eight years, Michelle White, during the shooting of Mr and Mrs Smith.

Glover and PEN15 creator Maya Erskine, 36, played the titular married spies whose fake relationship gives rise to real feelings against a backdrop of deadly and hilarious scenarios.

Asked whether the show’s realistically romantic portrayal of marriage made the actors more optimistic about the institution, Glover responded: “Yeah I do, actually.”

“We both got married to our partners, respectively,” said Erskine. “Donald got married during the show and I got married right after the show, so definitely it had an impact on us.”

Erskine married her husband, the actor Michael Angarano, after announcing their engagement in 2020.

Glover, who is famously protective of his private life, added: “I love marriage because I never had rose-coloured glasses about it. My dad was always like, ‘Oh, marriage is really hard work.’”

He continued: “It was never like, ‘Oh you’re supposed to be happy all the time.’”