Lionsgate’s is destined to be one of the most idiosyncratic movies of 2025. A cinematic project produced in tandem with the album of the same name, the film is not only the brainchild of , better known by his stage alter ego , but also filmmaker . The writer-director behind (2015), (2017), and (2019) has crafted an ambitious psychological thriller that represents the end of Abel Tesfaye’s career as “The Weeknd.” This final chapter is told through an introspective study on a fictionalized version of Abel and mysterious characters played by () and (), whose roles may be more metaphorical than literal. 

While it’s easy to assume initially, Hurry Up Tomorrow is not a visual album or mere collection of music videos strung together by a movie plot. This is a complex narrative that offers plenty for viewers to chew on. For longtime fans of Abel Tesfaye, it’s three times as rich, with easter eggs and callbacks to plenty of his songs and character lore as The Weeknd. DiscussingFilm was lucky enough to sit down with Trey Edward Schults, whose feature films have been nothing if not huge conversation starters, for an exclusive interview. Schults was quite forthcoming about Hurry Up Tomorrow, from its inception to potential audience interpretations. Yet, one thing stood at the center: the psychology behind this story.

When discussing how Hurry Up Tomorrow may be interpreted, Trey Edward Schults maintained that he doesn’t want to put a neat bow on everything for an audience. He’s open to a literal version of events, saying, “If you want to go on a ride with the movie and take everything at face value, I hope it works.” Nonetheless, the Texas-born filmmaker suggests a more intriguing way of looking at things through the work of prolific Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist , who divided the collective unconscious into archetypes that could help explain the human psyche. These archetypes are the persona, the self, the shadow, and the anima/animus, which is the unconscious female part of a man’s mind and vice versa. 

As his parents were both therapists, Schults had an early brush with the work of Carl Jung. The filmmaker relays that “My mom brought home from one of her patients Jung’s Red Book one day, and I was fascinated by it.” in question is a manuscript that chronicles Jung’s psychological observations over a period of several years in the 1910s. It’s no wonder, then, that Trey Edward Schults has ostensibly adopted the Swiss psychologist’s framework as a possible way of reading the narrative of Hurry Up Tomorrow.

Krisha, It Comes At Night, and Waves are all movies that have sparked their own rigorous debates as to how to be interpreted, whether it be on an emotional, literal, or metaphorical level. Although it can be argued that Trey Edward Shults has had psychology interwoven within all his work to a certain degree, consciously or unconsciously, it’s rarely been as apparent as it is in Hurry Up Tomorrow. Due to that aspect, Shults presents a potential pathway to reading the events of the film. 

“If you want to reinterpret [Hurry Up Tomorrow] as a Jungian dream analysis, then maybe none of it actually happened. Maybe, it’s all kind of a dream… I don’t want to put a bow on everything for an audience. I want them to take their own things. You could talk about Abel as his character representing the self, The Weeknd representing the persona, his manager Lee (Barry Keoghan) representing the id and the ego, and Jenna Ortega representing the Anima and this confrontation Abel needs to have with himself.”

The origins of how psychology came into the development of Hurry Up Tomorrow are surprising. Trey Edward Schults revealed to DiscussingFilm that the seeds of the movie came from a meeting with Abel Tesfaye, who “had this idea of exploring a film about one of the most vulnerable times of his life, when he lost his voice.” He is, of course, referring to a September 2022 incident where Tesfaye in front of a sold-out crowd at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles for his ongoing tour. 

Scenes for HBO’s were also being filmed during this performance. However, Tesfaye had no choice but to stop and postpone the concert due to his poor vocal condition. Schults connected with the almost certain shock of losing your voice in front of an arena as “being a humiliating, scary thing.” This conversation immediately got the gears turning, as Schults was a big fan of (1966) and the symbolism used in the works of . From there, Hurry Up Tomorrow began to take shape.

: “Abel was overstressed; he was in a dark space in his mind. But using that as the jumping-off point and leaning into that psychology meant that this could be a really rich film. For me, Jung’s Red Book and these metaphorical meanings within the characters led to the real light bulb moment. After [Abel and I] had talked, the structure and characters were unlocked.”

Trey Edward Shults’ directorial touch carries a strong autobiographical nature. His feature debut, Krisha, includes his own aunt and himself in a prominent role, while Waves was, to his own admission, very much based on his own experiences. Regarding the latter, Waves left him feeling “tapped out of that kind of storytelling.” He expanded, “I was genuinely telling myself that I needed to live more life before I even attempt again to play with the actual stuff I’ve lived through.” But through his partnership with Abel Tesfaye, he found a renewed creative drive.

Tesfaye and Shults discussed the personal issues the singer had been going through, and how he wanted to transform that into visual art. As Trey Edward Shults explains, “getting to do these, sort of, therapy sessions with Abel and find out about his past and history. I put myself in his shoes and imagined if he had made wrong choices and surrounded himself with wrong people.” Exploring that tied back to his own experiences in quite a peculiar way, specifically regarding his own art.

Eagle-eyed fans of The Weeknd are likely heading into Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025) looking to dive deeper into the headspace of Abel Tesfaye and further understand his creative process. However, just as much of Trey Edward Shults’ personality has made it into the final cut, managing to tie in a time in his own life as formative as when Tesfaye lost his voice.

When we meet [Abel’s] character, he’s touring on the road, and he’s not in a healthy mind space. You can tell from frame one that something’s going on in his head, and it’s not good. That’s honestly how I felt on the Waves press tour. It was not a great experience for me — it was long, tiring, and ultimately, fruitless. Like, no one saw the movie, and it all felt useless. I was very depressed and sad after that. So, when it came to [Hurry Up Tomorrow], it was all about taking these personal, real-life emotions and figuring out how I could put them in a totally fictional story that really excited me.”

One thing’s absolutely clear: Hurry Up Tomorrow is not your traditional cinematic experience. By utilizing such a deep psychological framework, it explores the life experiences of both its filmmaker, Trey Edward Shults, and pop star subject, Abel Tesfaye, in a way that’s ambitious in the modern age. The conversations are only getting started, and are likely to grow after Lionsgate finally releases Hurry Up Tomorrow in theaters.

May 16, 2025.
Trey Edward Shults.
Trey Edward Shults, Abel Tesfaye, & Reza Fahim.
Hurry Up Tomorrow by The Weeknd.
Abel Tesfaye, Reza Fahim, Kevin Turen, & Harrison Kreiss.
Trey Edward Shults, Jenna Ortega, Michael Rapino, Harrison Huffman, Ryan Kroft, & Wassim Sal Slaiby.
Main Cast: Abel Tesfaye, Jenna Ortega, & Barry Keoghan.
Cinematographer: Chayse Irvin.
Composer: Abel Tesfaye & Daniel Lopatin.
Production Companies: Live Nation Productions & Manic Phase.
Distributor: Lionsgate.
Runtime: 105 minutes.
Rated R.