UPDATED with Trey Parker and Matt Stone‘s statement: South Park fans who have waited for more than two years to get a new season of the hit animated comedy, will have to wait a little bit longer — the Season 27 premiere on Comedy Central, originally slated for July 9, is being moved to July 23. The network has released a new poster for the upcoming season, touting the return of Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny and other popular characters, including Jesus.

The delay comes amid tension — including a legal threat — over South Park‘s lucrative streaming rights as the series was caught in the uncertainty over Skydance’s pending acquisition of Comedy Central parent Paramount Global, which co-owns the joint venture behind South Park, South Park Digital Studios, with series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone who run it.

In a statement after South Park’s new return was announced, Parker and Stone slammed the move.

“This merger is a sh*tshow and it’s f*cking with up South Park,” they wrote on X. “We are at the studio working on new episodes and we hope the fans get to see them somehow.”

The show’s $500 million exclusive streaming licensing deal with HBO Max expired a week ago but has not been replaced by a new exclusive one — or multiple non-exclusive ones.

The latter has emerged as the likely scenario. Paramount Global had long stated that they want the show on the company’s streaming platform Paramount+. In May, Paramount Global co-CEO Chris McCarthy told investors on the company’s earnings call that “starting this July, [South Park] will be coming to Paramount+ in the US.”

At the same time, South Park streaming rights — believed to be non-exclusive — have been shopped to other platforms, with HBO Max parent Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix making bids, according to a legal letter an attorney for Parker and Stone’s Park County sent recently to RedBird, Skydance and RedBird’s Jeff Shell — who is poised to become Paramount Global President upon completion of its proposed acquisition by Skydance — over alleged interference in the deal negotiations. THR reported on the letter, in which Parker and Stone threaten legal action over what the document claims included an attempt to get WBD to agree to a shorter, 5-year term and to take new seasons of South Park after they’ve had a 12-month exclusive window on Paramount+.

While the matter is being resolved, the existing 26 episodes of South Park continue to be available on Max as part of an extension during deal renewal negotiations. The show did not launch on Paramount+ July 1 as many anticipated, with no advisory on the status by the streamer, creating confusion among fans. Paramount+, which carries a handful of South Park specials made exclusively for the platform that became the subject of a lawsuit by WBD, is still expected to start streaming the show in time for the new season.

Co-creators Parker and Stone are executive producers, along with Anne Garefino and Frank C. Agnone II. Eric Stough, Adrien Beard, Bruce Howell and Vernon Chatman are producers. Christopher Brion is the Creative Director of South Park Digital Studios.

Here is a teaser for Season 27, which was released at the time of the original premiere date announcement.