The showstopper appearance of Abel Tesfaye at CinemaCon surprised everyone that came with a trailer release at the festival. The global superstar, known as The Weeknd, entertained the audience with a mini-concert alongside Jenna Ortega.
Their upcoming film is a psychological thriller with a touch of Tesfaye’s own music. Jenna Ortega in Hurry Up Tomorrow will be his mysterious savior, and how they are connected will be unveiled on May 16, 2025.
Plot details of Hurry Up Tomorrow
Abel Tesfaye, whose professional name is The Weeknd, is an insomniac musician pushed onto a journey when he mysteriously meets a stranger, Anima (played by Jenna Ortega).
This is when he starts challenging everything he knows about himself, which could be like an existential journey. We will encounter Abel’s fictionalized version, unraveling a psychological thriller story with songs written by Abel himself.
Hurry Up Tomorrow will be accompanied by the album of the same name, which features songs composed by The Weeknd himself. The project concludes The Weeknd’s artistic trilogy of his previous albums, After Hours (2020) and Dawn FM (2022).
Watch the trailer here:
Edward Shults on Hurry Up Tomorrow
Trey Edward Shults, whose previous works include It Comes At Night and Waves, spoke with Entertainment Weekly and told that the film includes existential and self-referential themes. He said,
“It’s about an artist, you could say, on the verge of a mental breakdown. He meets this woman, and they go on this odyssey together…I honestly feel like I’ve never seen a movie quite like it.” [Source]
He was thrilled to work with Abel Tesfaye as they both “gelled as humans” without any complexity. The director was fascinated to see his “approach with creativity” as he wanted to make it a Trey movie.
Abel had so many ideas for the film, and they were going crazy while having discussions, Shults confessed. Shults elucidated that it wasn’t about a movie. There were some songs, primarily demos and instrumentals, which were in their initial stages. Tesfaye showed him those pieces of music that got Edward Shults into the writing process, and the story took its shape with the perfect combination of music in it.
Talking in the same interview, Shults opened about the process of writing the story. Tesfaye and Shults held long discussions on the phone that led Shults to dig deeper into the musician’s past, his life, and headspace. They both created a character that wasn’t him exactly but closer to his soul.
The director revealed that this character of the film needed self-reflection and guidance since he was at “a crossroads in his life”. This was better understood when he started talking to Tesfaye.
Edward Shults discussed that people have their own subjective experiences, and this film is all about it. Tesfaye’s subjective feelings are shown in the film, and the film takes you into someone else’s soul through cinema.
Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd’s views about Edward Shults
Tesfaye has the same thoughts about Edward Shults. Tesfaye called Trey’s vision “boundless” and “emotionally captivating”. At the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) premiere of Waves, Tesfaye had a feeling that he should collaborate with Edward Shults on his next project.
Tesfaye understood that the complex themes of the film Waves were already crafted in a way that resonated quite deeply. It was a psychological journey in the making that the audience was bound to remember for life, he said.
As mentioned above, the director knew the film’s character was at a crossroads in life; it was a similar time when Tesfaye felt the same back in 2022. For the first time, he lost his voice in the middle of a performance for which the doctors couldn’t figure out a physical reason for him, as per AOL.
Later, Tesfaye found that it was mental, but the trauma of losing his voice mid-performance was devastating for him. The trauma didn’t leave him easily and left scars. That was the time when he felt he needed to figure out his life, and so his album took shape during those days.
Experience of Jenna Ortega in Hurry Up Tomorrow
After the trailer release at CinemaCon, Jenna Ortega spoke of her experience of working on the film. She unfurled that it was an “experience”, and once she got into it with that mentality, it all made sense.
Death of a Unicorn actress was in awe of the group of people she had been working with during film shoots. She found them all very creative and made their conversations meaningful.
The gray subjects like those that are part of the film’s themes are the most absorbing ones, she said. The film’s team was especially creative about it, and that is why she thought it was an “experimental” journey, getting to know the psychological things that otherwise as an actor, she might not have been able to understand.
When is Hurry Up Tomorrow releasing?
Hurry Up Tomorrow is going to be released theatrically by Lionsgate on May 16, 2025.
Genre: Psychological thriller
Cast: Abel Tesfaye, Jenna Ortega, Barry Keoghan
Director: Trey Edward Shults
Writers: Reza Fahim, Trey Edward Shults, Abel Tesafaye
Producers: Reza Fahim, Harrison Kreiss, Abel Tesfaye, Kevin Turen
Release date: May 16, 2025
Movie runtime: 1 hour 45 minutes
Think this one will live up to the buzz? Let us know your thoughts on Hurry Up Tomorrow in the comments below.
Passionate Entertainment Writer | Trusted Pop Culture Voice
Madiha Ali is an experienced entertainment writer with over five years of expertise in covering movies, TV shows, celebrity news, and pop culture. Her bylines appear on trusted platforms like Screen Anarchy, High on Films, Ary News, The Express Tribune, Tea and Banter, Show Snob, CelebFeedz, Snapfeedz, Daily Planet Media, The Irish Insider, and Movie Insiderz.
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When she’s not writing, she’s fully immersed in the world of entertainment—watching new releases, revisiting classics, exploring behind-the-scenes content, or reading books that fuel her creativity. Her passion for storytelling drives her work and helps her stay connected to what matters most in the industry.
Madiha believes great stories start conversations, challenge perspectives, and stay with us long after the credits roll. Through her writing, she continues to share those stories with clarity, depth, and heart.
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