2025 is proving to be an eventful year for fans of The Weeknd with his much-anticipated album that recently dropped. However, it goes beyond his music that audiences are clamoring for the Canadian pop star’s work. In a similar vein to Donald Glover hanging up his musical moniker as Childish Gambino, Abel Tesfaye is celebrating the poignant end of using his stage name, The Weeknd, with an ambitious film project linked to his final album. Hurry Up Tomorrow is an upcoming psychological thriller that is written by and stars the four-time Grammy winner.
The film is teed up to be an insightful conclusion to Tesfaye’s musical journey as The Weeknd. With the project sharing the same name as his last album released on January 31, it drives home the sense of finality before Tesfaye retires his beloved stage name and the era associated with it. The singer has built up a rich body of work since his first studio album in 2013. He also crafted a meaningful send-off with Hurry Up Tomorrow being part of an album trilogy alongside After Hours in 2020 and Dawn FM in 2022. Since the start of the trilogy, Tesfaye has been working tirelessly by going on world tours and even making his first foray into television by co-creating and starring in the controversial HBO series The Idol. He now pivots to the big screen with this mysterious and suspenseful story in Hurry Up Tomorrow. It isn’t known how much of the film will draw from The Weeknd’s life, but all these experiences ultimately provide an intriguing backdrop and understanding of his psyche within the story.
Continue reading below to know everything about The Weeknd’s feature film acting debut in Hurry Up Tomorrow.
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When Will ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ Be Released?
The psychological thriller is slated for release on May 16, later this year. It shares the same date as the horror movie Final Destination: Bloodlines. Hurry Up Tomorrow is sandwiched between the notable release dates of studio films like Marvel’s Thunderbolts* on May 2 and Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning a week later on May 23.
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Will ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ Be In Theaters or Streaming?
Audiences will get to experience this musically driven psychological film exclusively in theaters. No official announcements have been made yet regarding the expected streaming date for the film. However, it will likely be made available on Prime Video due to the film being a Lionsgate property. This comes from the recent news that saw a new streaming deal between Amazon Prime Video and the Canadian-American distribution company.
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Watch the Trailer for ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’
The trailer first dropped on February 4, using The Weeknd’s single “São Paulo”. What unfolds are some unnerving but absorbing sequences of the singer in lonesome locations juxtaposed with the populated space of his concert. His character is seen interacting closely with a boisterous friend portrayed by Barry Keoghan (Saltburn). Yet, things truly take a turn when The Weeknd meets an enigmatic woman played by Jenna Ortega (Wednesday). The trailer ends with an ominous voice stating “Call me by the familiar name” before cutting to someone yelling “Abel”. This alludes to Tesfaye’s creative decision to say goodbye to his title as The Weeknd and base his musical identity around his real name going forward.
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What Is the Plot of ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’?
Information about the story has remained a mystery, lending itself to the film’s genre as a psychological thriller. In a recent Entertainment Weekly interview, director Trey Edward Shults (Waves) and Tesfaye shed some light on the film’s plot. Schults stated that the story follows “an artist…on the verge of a mental breakdown”. Tesfaye called the experience of creating the film “really introspective and cathartic”, which would prove likely given the semi-autobiographical nature of the story and his character.
It’s noted that the film was being created first before the album took shape beyond demos. The songs from the album will most likely be integrated into the movie. Whether it will be solely as the soundtrack or even performances in scenes is yet to be revealed. The album’s tracklist suggests potential hints about the plot direction given Tesfaye’s perceptive lyricism and themes around death, fame and identity that appear to be abundant in the film’s trailer. A prime example is the album’s third track, an interlude that is glaringly titled “I Can’t F*cking Sing”. This alludes to the infamous incident where The Weeknd lost his voice midway through a concert performance in Los Angeles in 2022. In a recent Variety interview, Tesfaye mentioned that this incident influenced part of his decision to end his run as The Weeknd and also reformed the album and film’s original script.
Ultimately, the surreal visuals of the trailer hide the real story that lurks within the film. Until audiences are able to watch it in the cinemas, the official synopsis offers some details as follows:
A musician plagued by insomnia is pulled into an odyssey with a stranger who begins to unravel the very core of his existence.
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Who Stars in ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’?
Much like the plot, details about the characters were also kept under tight wraps. News only broke about the two main cast additions of Ortega and Keoghan, who would star opposite Tesfaye.
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Abel Tesfaye |
The Weeknd |
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Jenna Ortega |
Anima |
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Barry Keoghan |
Lee |
Tesfaye portrays a fictional version of himself in the film who lives a similar lifestyle as a huge pop star filling stadiums of fans for his concerts. However, his personal life proves to be lonely and troubled, causing him to be on the precipice of a breakdown. His loneliness is amplified by his main connection being present in the form of his closest friend, Lee (Keoghan). Their relationship serves as a double-edged sword to The Weeknd, especially with Lee also being his manager. It isn’t until the musician crosses paths with Ortega’s Anima that his world opens up to strange events and realizations about his life. Not much is known about Anima, but the trailer shows her as a fan who attends his concert and potentially crosses the boundary between admirer and admired.
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Who Is Making ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’?
It’s evident that this film is quite a personal project for Abel Tesfaye, especially given his credits as a leading star, writer, and producer. He also teamed up with Trey Edward Shults and Reza Fahim (The Idol) to write the screenplay. Shults directed and edited the film and is best known for his movies It Comes At Night and Waves. It was the 2019 drama film, Waves, that Tesfaye watched and prompted him to seek out Shults as a collaborator. Fahim also serves as a producer alongside Kevin Turen and Harrison Kreiss, all of whom were previous producers on The Idol and Waves.
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When and Where Did ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ Film?
At the time of the project’s announcement in February 2023, production had already begun. Based on Instagram posts by the film’s cinematographer, Chayse Irvin, filming took place in Los Angeles.
