With the release of his sixth studio album Hurry Up Tomorrow and its accompanying film set to hit theaters on May 16, Abel Tesfaye previously hinted at retiring “The Weeknd” moniker. But in a recent Entertainment Weekly interview alongside director Trey Edward Shults and co-star Jenna Ortega, the Grammy-winning artist suggested the shift might be more evolution than conclusion.
“It feels like [the death of The Weeknd],” Tesfaye said, “but it could also just be a rebirth. Who knows?”
The Hurry Up Tomorrow album and film draw deeply from a personal moment: when Tesfaye abruptly lost his voice mid-performance in Los Angeles back in 2022. That traumatic event—both physical and psychological—sparked an artistic transformation that shaped the narrative and sound of this new era.
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Credits: Andrew Cooper
In the film, Tesfaye plays a version of himself named Abel, an insomnia-stricken musician lured into a surreal psychological journey by a mysterious figure named Anima (played by Ortega). Barry Keoghan appears as his manager, Lee, adding gravitas to the film’s exploration of identity and mental unraveling.
The project is intentionally ambiguous. Shults, who co-wrote the screenplay with Tesfaye and Reza Fahim, emphasized that while longtime fans might view it as The Weeknd’s swan song, the story stands on its own.
“For people that aren’t his fans and don’t know anything about him,” Shults explained, “I think you still have a great movie to go through.”
With Hurry Up Tomorrow, Tesfaye isn’t just experimenting—he’s redefining the boundaries between music, film, and identity. Whether this marks the end of The Weeknd or the beginning of something entirely new, one thing is clear: the artist is once again pushing the envelope in unexpected ways.
Hurry Up Tomorrow releases in theaters nationwide on May 16, 2025.
