Psych: The Movie 2 Gets a New Title, Release Date, and Heads to NBC’s Streaming Service

The movie formerly known as Psych: The Movie 2 today got a new title, a new release date, and a new release platform — quite an exciting flurry of activity for a movie that isn’t even out yet. Now known as Psych 2: Lassie Come Home, the movie’s holiday release window has been pushed back to April 2020. Instead of premiering on USA Network, where Psych ran for eight seasons from 2006 to 2014 (Psych: The Movie also premiered there), it will turn up on NBC Universal’s planned streaming service — although comments on Twitter from series star James Roday seemed to suggest that fans would still be able to watch the movie for free.

The title, besides being a play on Lassie Come Home, is also an acknowledgment that in the first Psych movie, fans got hardly a glimpse of Santa Barbara Police Chief Carlton Lassiter, played by Lucifer‘s Timothy Omundson. Omundson suffered a stroke not long before production on the movie began, and in this installment, Omundson is back — and he has a message for the stroke: “Suck it.” Fans of Psych will recognize that as a common running gag, of course, but more than that, it carries some emotional weight to see the actor well on the way to recovery. The film will also likely play to any lingering symptoms Omundson might have, since his character will be attacked and left for dead at the beginning, presumably limiting the physical exertion he needs to do in most of the movie.

The NBC streaming service, called Peacock, will reportedly host all eight seasons and both movies of Psych. Deadline notes that while “losing” Psych seems unfortunate for USA, it is difficult for a traditional, ad-supported broadcast network to turn a profit on TV movies.

Starring James Roday as Shawn Spencer, Dulé Hill as Burton “Gus” Guster, Maggie Lawson as Juliet “Jules” O’Hara, Kirsten Nelson as Karen Vick, Corbin Bernsen as Henry Spencer, and Tim Omundson as Carlton Jebediah Lassiter, the OG crew reunites once again — this time in Santa Barbara — when Lassie is ambushed on the job and left for dead…

In a vintage Psych-style Hitchcockian nod, Lassie begins to see impossible happenings around his recovery clinic. Shawn and Gus return to the Chief’s side in Santa Barbara and are forced to navigate the personal, the professional, and possibly the supernatural. Separated from their new lives in San Francisco, our heroes find themselves unwelcome in their old stomping grounds as they secretly untangle a twisted case without the benefit of the police, their loved ones, or the quality sourdough bakeries of the Bay Area. What they uncover will change the course of their relationships forever.

Psych: The Movie 2, hailing from Universal Content Productions (UCP) in association with Thruline Entertainment, will be directed by series creator Steve Franks, and is co-written by Franks, Roday and Andy Berman. Franks, Chris Henze of Thruline, Roday, and Hill are set to executive produce. Production is set to begin this March in Vancouver, son!