Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Conner Friel is a musical prodigy at an early age, and he forms a pop rap group dubbed "The Style Boyz" with his childhood friends Lawrence Dunn and Owen Bouchard. They almost instantly gain fame in the music industry and inspire many of today's musicians. However, after failing to receive credit for writing Conner's guest verse on a popular single, Lawrence leaves.

After the Style Boyz disband, Conner begins a solo act, taking on the name "Conner4Real", with Owen as his DJ while being supported by his mother Tilly. Lawrence begins farming in Colorado after a failed attempt at going solo. Conner's debut album Thriller, Also rockets to the top of the charts, and his fame increases. In 2015, Conner releases his sophomore album, Connquest, which is heavily panned due to his writing every song himself and using hundreds of different producers rather than Owen's original beats. With low sales, Conner's manager Harry suggests having Aquaspin, a home appliance manufacturer, sponsor the tour as they meet with its representative, Deborah. The company's appliances begin playing Conner's songs when in use, causing a nationwide power outage.

Conner begins his tour, but the shows do not sell as well as he had hoped. Harry suggests they hire hip-hop artist Hunter the Hungry as an opening act, and the ticket sales begin to rise. Conner adds new gimmicks to his act, including a robotic mask for Owen, and publicizes his relationship with actress Ashley Wednesday. But when a trick is seemingly botched in Nashville, Conner is exposed naked (without his penis visible) mid-concert and becomes the subject of mockery. Conner's publicist Paula Klein suggests he pull another publicity stunt to deflect attention from his humiliation. Conner decides to propose to Ashley on live TV, with a display including several trained Party Wolves and a performance by Seal. Seal's vocals agitate the wolves, and they break loose, mauling the attendees. A news report states that Seal sued Conner for his injuries as Seal's fans talk bad about Conner. Seal fights one of them, but gets attacked by another one as Conner, Ashley, and Harry flee in their limo. After the incident, Conner and Owen end up as guests on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Sometime later, a news report states that Ashley has broken up with Conner.

Worried about the declining quality of his friend's music, Owen sets up a meeting between himself, Conner, and Lawrence in the hopes of bringing them back together, like The Parent Trap. The reunion ends poorly when Conner refuses to acknowledge that Lawrence wrote the track that launched his career. As the solo tour progresses, Hunter's career takes off, selling more records than Connor and extending his opening performances.

At one of the concerts, Hunter announces that he will not leave the stage, angering Conner. Conner rushes the stage, but a brawl ensues when Hunter admits that he orchestrated Conner's wardrobe malfunction. Conner demands that Harry fire Hunter as the opener, but when Harry refuses, he discovers that Harry has signed Hunter. Conner fires Harry. Connquest is later knocked off the charts, and Aquaspin decides to pull their sponsorship.

After talking about how he thought he can trust Harry, Seal (who Ashley married), and that Yelp review on PartyWolves.com, Conner tests Owen and his yes men's loyalty by making them pancakes mixed with dog feces. Owen decides to leave the team when. After his beloved pet turtle Maximus dies and a fight with Martin Sheen, Conner sinks into a depression and moves back into Tilly's house while Tilly is away with Fall Out Boy. He begins drinking heavily and starts selling crude horse drawings online. Checking up on Connor, Paula forces Conner to leave the house and takes him to a club featuring Owen.

Conner and Owen reconcile and decide to finally make amends with Lawrence. Conner gives Lawrence his Poppy music award, apologizes, and acknowledges his contributions. As the three get high and collaborate in Lawrence's studio, Conner receives news from Paula that a six-minute slot has opened for Conner to perform at the Poppy Music Awards due to Taylor Swift being arrested for murder. With encouragement from his friends, he decides to reunite the Style Boyz.

At the Poppys, Hunter and Mariah Carey argue on stage, and Harry orders Hunter to find himself a new manager after being insulted by him. Conner reconciles with Harry and later finds out that the six-minute slot has been shortened to three, forcing him to perform either a Conner4Real song or a Style Boyz song. Conner decides to perform the Style Boyz's new song "Incredible Thoughts" featuring Michael Bolton.

As Hunter leaves in defeat, Conner reflects on his lessons and the value of holding onto relationships after reaching stardom while also wondering if Lawrence knew a crew member who kissed him and why Deborah is backstage. Connor introduces a new baby turtle named Maximus II before one of the Party Wolves attacks him.

During the credits, the CMZ reporters talk about the Style Boyz getting back together. While they note that they don't hang out much outside of their work, the lead reporter does ask if they have a picture of James Franco leaving a restaurant.

• Andy Samberg as Conner "Kid Conner" Friel / Conner4Real, a pop rap star
  • Evan Fine as 10-year-old Conner
• Jorma Taccone as Owen "Kid Contact" Bouchard, Conner's former bandmate and current DJ
  • Maxwell Jenkins as 10-year-old Owen
• Akiva Schaffer as Lawrence "Kid Brain" Dunn, Conner's former bandmate and songwriter who became a farmer following the breakup
  • Elliott Smith as 10-year-old Lawrence
• Sarah Silverman[4] as Paula Klein, Conner's publicist
• Tim Meadows[5] as Harry Duggins, Conner's manager
• Maya Rudolph as Deborah, a representative for Aquaspin
• Joan Cusack as Tilly Friel, Conner's party-addicted mother who supports her son
• Imogen Poots as Ashley Wednesday, Conner's girlfriend[6]
• Chris Redd as Hunter the Hungry, an underground rapper who tours with Conner
• Edgar Blackmon and James Buckley as Eddie and Sponge, members of Conner's entourage who serve as his yes men[7]

The rest of Conner's staff include: Ashley Moore as Sarah, his personal assistant; Bill Hader as Zippy, a roadie; Danny Strong as his perspective manipulator; Will Forte as his bagpipe player; and Justin Timberlake as Tyrus Quash (uncredited), Conner's chef who later dresses as Mr. Fish during the Style Boyz performance at the Poppies.

Will Arnett, Eric André, Mike Birbiglia, and Chelsea Peretti portray CMZ reporters, a parody of TMZ. Kevin Nealon appears as photographer Gary Sikes, and Paul Scheer plays the Party Wolves handler at Conner and Ashley's engagement ceremony. Emma Stone makes an uncredited cameo as Claudia Cantrell, a well-known pop singer who helped kickstart Conner's solo career, and "Weird Al" Yankovic appears as the lead singer of Hammerleg. The wives of Samberg, Taccone, and Schaffer all make brief appearances: Joanna Newsom (Samberg's wife) as Zippy's flatline doctor, Marielle Heller (Taccone's wife) as a member of Conner's documentary crew, and Liz Cackowski (Schaffer's wife) as the Poppies stage manager. Judd Apatow voices one of Conner's fans.

Cameos as themselves

• Akon
• ASAP Rocky
• Big Boy
• Michael Bolton, he joins the Style Boyz in performing "Incredible Thoughts"
• Win Butler
• Mariah Carey, she talks about Connor and later argues with Hunter at the Poppys
• Régine Chassagne
• Simon Cowell
• Miley Cyrus
• Danger Mouse
• DJ Khaled
• Jimmy Fallon, he interviews Connor and Owen on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
• 50 Cent
• Steve Higgins
• Adam Levine
• Nas
• Pink
• Questlove
• Behati Prinsloo
• Katy Perry
• Rihanna
• The Roots
• RZA
• Seal, he performs at Connor's disastrous proposal to Ashley
• Martin Sheen, he gets into a fight with Connor
• Snoop Dogg, he attends the Poppys while promoting his new TV show "Surprise Motherf***ers"
• Ringo Starr
• Asa Taccone
• T.I.
• Carrie Underwood
• Usher
• Pharrell Williams

Principal photography on the film began on May 14, 2015, announced by Universal Pictures under the working title Conner4real.[8][9]

The film was advertised on YouTube the month of its release date. On May 10, 2016, Samberg made an appearance on NBC's The Voice in character as Conner4real to perform "I'm So Humble", alongside judge Adam Levine, and give answers to contestants in a farcical Q&A session.[10] Samberg then made a guest appearance on the season 41 finale of Saturday Night Live, on May 21, 2016. Promoted as a new SNL Digital Short, he appeared in character as Conner4real and debuted a song from the movie ("Finest Girl"). Taccone and Schaffer received guest writing credits for the episode.[11] The Lonely Island also released a video "I'm a Weirdo" to their YouTube channel, featuring Conner4real rapping on the street.

The film was released in the United States on June 3, 2016, and in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2016, by Universal Pictures. It did not get an international release.[12]

The Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping soundtrack album, performed by the Lonely Island, was released on June 3, 2016, the day of the film's release.[13]

In 2022, Schaffer announced that a sequel to the film is not in the works, but is not off the table.[31]

• Blizzard Man – Samberg's SNL sketch about a questionable rapper.

• Official website
• Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping at IMDb
• Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping at Rotten Tomatoes
• Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping at Metacritic
• Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping at Box Office Mojo