South Park has taken an interesting direction in the past few years. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have effectively moved into semi-serialized storytelling, and they basically released a new South Park movie with the video game South Park: The Stick of Truth. Earlier this week, we got a trailer for their newest game South Park: The Fractured But Whole, and the duo talked to EW about the genesis of the project and what it might mean for the future of the TV series.
When it came to the genesis of The Fracture But Whole, it naturally came about from the most immature desire possible:
TREY PARKER: If we did a game, what would it be? We have all this superhero sh–. It could be the next day.” If we did it, what would it be? What would we call it? We came up with the title The Fractured But Whole. And we were like: “That’s such a sweet title, dude. We’ve gotta make this game. For nothing else than that we could walk around E3 and see The Fractured But Whole in huge flashing letters. Millions of dollars in The Fractured But Whole.
But while the title might be a joke, they’re not fooling around with making a superior sequel. Speaking about upgrading the series:
MATT STONE: The thing that needed to be updated was the combat. It was pretty simple turn-based on the last game. So there’s a whole new combat system that’s gonna be pretty fun. There’s a lot of ways to use it, instead of just two-on-two facing each other. It still looks like you’re in an episode of South Park. Sometimes you don’t need a whole lot of technical stuff. It can just be a menu joke. When you die, it should be funny. When you get hurt, it should be funny.
They also revealed that this time around you can play as a girl, and that playing as a girl will affect the interactions.
STONE: But the boys are little boys, because it’s really a story about little boys running around. So they don’t care about [your character being a girl]? That seems weird. They always seemed to care about it in the show. Are they dumb about it, and they don’t know? So you’re in hiding? Or do they totally care about that, and totally treat you differently? So we ended up doing those things differently for different characters.
Stone and Parker also said they were considering making a new South Park movie, and decided to do Fractured instead.
Additionally, when it comes to the TV show, don’t expect the semi-serialized storylines to disappear anytime soon:
STONE: To follow storylines through? We couldn’t do that when we started. We were from a different era of TV, when you had to do the sitcom-style reset every week. That’s why a lot of shows – you see it in The Simpsons and us, too – they have dumbest last one minute of a show, because we have to go back to normal for next week. We don’t have to do that anymore.
PARKER: It is nice to realize you don’t have to tie up everything.
Parker also said that video games might be where the future of the South Park franchise is headed. Stone added:
I think in 20 years, 10 years, people will be playing more. That convergence of entertainment, whether it’s VR or a more immersive thing. The more you get in it, the more you watch Pew Die Pie, and people watch Pew Die Pie play, and you watch E-sports. You watch young people, and the way they engage with something – sh–, maybe that is the future of South Park.
South Park returns for its 20th season this fall. South Park: The Fractured But Whole hits PS4, Xbox One, and PC on December 6th.