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How a Failed Netflix Movie Inspired a Gorillaz Album About ‘Hanging Around for an Eternity’

The movie was stuck in limbo for two years before Albarn and Hewlett lost interest.

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Gorillaz members Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett sat down with Zane Lowe of Apple Music in March 2026, surrounded by memorabilia of their band. In an hour-long interview, they traversed the ups and downs of the duo’s virtual band. Gorillaz debuted in 2001 with a self-titled release and, 25 years later, dropped their ninth album, The Mountain.

The current release deals with death, loss, and grief after Albarn and Hewlett both lost their fathers in a short period of time. But by grieving their losses while traveling through India, they approached death with a more positive, celebratory mindset. These cultural influences are clear in the music, but also in the overall spirit of the album.

They also looked back on how they built this pillar of their careers. The group started as four animated characters meant to subvert typical celebrity expectations, and now they are celebrities in their own way. Through mainstream successes and commercial failures, their appearances often changed to reflect the world.

But a big takeaway from the interview is how the eighth Gorillaz album, Cracker Island, came to be. According to the duo, it was written during a time when they were waiting around at the whims of a streaming giant.

“We had this moment with Netflix where we were literally told ‘You can do whatever you want and we’re going to give you as much money [as you need],’ and we were like ‘OK great,’” said Hewlett. “[Then] the guy we were working with just left, and [Netflix] said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll find someone else.’ It was like ‘OK, there’s going to be another year of conversations before this starts again.’ So we pulled out.”

Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett Have ‘No Interest’ In a Gorillaz Movie Anymore

According to Albarn, working on the Gorillaz movie with Netflix felt like they were stuck in limbo. News of the film was originally announced in 2020, but negotiations dragged on for two years. By that time, they’d lost interest.

Instead, they returned to music.

“We made an album while we were waiting, basically,” said Hewlett. That album became Cracker Island, released in February 2023.

For Albarn, Cracker Island was “a frustrating record, because it was a frustrating time for me.” As they were stuck in film production purgatory, feeling like they were “hanging around for an eternity” as Albarn said, Cracker Island became “a record about hanging around for eternity.”

Many diehard fans often wish things had gone differently. But the two expressed absolutely no desire to make a Gorillaz movie now. “If we’d done a movie 25 years ago, fine,” said Hewlett. “But the idea of doing a movie now? I have no interest in it whatsoever. No interest. It’s not an interesting idea, it’s not an original idea.”

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