Key and Peele’s ‘Substitute Teacher’ Is Officially Heading to the Big Screen

Last September, it was reported that Key & Peele creators and stars Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele were working on bringing their wildly popular “Substitute Teacher” sketch to the big screen. It’s just one of a few projects the comedy duo is currently developing, but it’s now taken the next step: Substitute Teacher is officially becoming a movie thanks to Paramount.

As Deadline reports, Paramount has preemptively purchased the distribution rights for Substitute Teacher, the feature-length concept based on the popular sketch from Key & Peele. That sketch, which has accumulated over 72 million views on YouTube, centers on Mr. Garvey, an inner city substitute teacher who’s been working for over 20 years — and he doesn’t take crap from anyone, especially kids named A-Aron and De-Nice. You can watch the original segment above.

Key will reprise the role of Mr. Garvey, while Peele will play a teacher who competes with Garvey to become the students’ favorite instructor. Key and Peele co-producers Rich Talarico and Alex Rubens are writing the script, while director Shawn Levy will also produce through his 21 Laps banner.

Key and Peele are also producing a Police Academy reboot, while it was reported last October that the pair are working on another film project called Keanu — about a stolen house cat named Keanu. Last we heard, that film was heading into production this spring. Right now it’s unclear whether Key and Peele will begin work on Substitute Teacher or Keanu first.

The new season of Key & Peele begins this July.