South Park to Bring Back Missing Character After 20 Years

South Park is going to finally be returning for new episodes later this Summer with a new season of the animated series, and one of these episodes is teased to be bringing back a character we haven’t seen in over 20 years. Although South Park has been gone for a while as series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have been working on other projects, it was teased earlier this year that new episodes would finally be on the way some time in 2025. Thankfully, this has now been confirmed to be the case as South Park has dropped the first look at Season 27.

South Park has confirmed that the animated series would be returning to Comedy Central later this July, and has dropped the first teaser trailer for what to expect from the coming episodes. While this trailer is indeed teasing the series’ take on hot button topics like airline safety, major musicians going through some legal trouble, and chaos with Canada, there’s also a tease of a return from a surprising character who has not had a full role in the show since Season 3, Starvin’ Marvin.

Who Is Starvin’ Marvin?

South Park has been running for such a long time that there have been many characters who have made either one or a few appearances in the series only to then never be seen again. Starvin’ Marvin is one of those cases, and probably one of the cases that hasn’t aged as well as the others. First introduced all the way back in the Season 1 episode, “Starvin’ Marvin,” the titular Starvin’ Marvin was a young boy from Ethiopia who was shipped to South Park in a box. The boys then tried to teach him how to be a proper American from there.

Starvin’ Marvin had a follow up appearance in the Season 3 episode, “Starvin’ Marvin in Space,” and after Marvin takes control of a spaceship, the episode ends with him bringing the rest of the Ethopians to the alien planet of Marklar. In the brief scene showcasing Marvin and the boys, they are riding on space ships as they are on the run from Diddy, who is currently going through a major legal case. This might even be an updated look at Marklar itself, but even if that’s not the case, it seems like the boys are going into space to reunite with their friend for the first time in a long time.

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When Does South Park Season 27 Come Out?

South Park Season 27 will be debuting with Comedy Central on Wednesday, July 9th. It’s yet to be revealed how many episodes this new season will be running for, but it has been quite a while since the last full season hit screens. Starvin Marvin’s return is a surprise as while he had been seen in background appearances in the past (as recently as Season 7), this will be the first time that he’ll have a crucial role in the series. But it seems like he won’t be the only returning face either with even Moses popping up again.

Starvin’ Marvin is also the kind of character that’s going to be wild to see return in 2025, but if there’s any series that can walk that fine line and still make it work, it’s South Park. It also looks like he’ll be playing a big role in the episode, so it’s going to be a fun watch for long time fans when he returns after all this time.