Since last year, fans have been anticipating what Nickelodeon has planned for Spongebob Squarepants’ 20th anniversary which is on the first of this May. And it looks like the network will be celebrating with a special birthday episode.

A recent listings report from Production Weekly has revealed that Nickelodeon is working on a birthday episode which seems to be titled as ‘SpongeBob’s 20th Birthday’. Work on the episode is expected to start on February 5th in Los Angeles.

The birthday episode will be directed by Jonas Morganstein, the owner and creative director of Jonas & Co, A Los Angeles based film and television advertising Production Company.

The listings also say the birthday episode will be live-action so it seems like it could feature a significant amount of scenes from the real world. The project note provided is as follows:

“It’s the 20th Anniversary of SpongeBob and we’re putting together a birthday episode to celebrate this beloved icon.”

Spongebob Squarepants first aired on May 1, 1999 and has continued to be renewed till now. There’s no stopping Nickelodeon from going ahead with this impressive animated series as the network is also developing another live-action Spongebob movie with Paramount Animation.

Spongebob has been making news for a different reason as well and it involves paying tribute to the late Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of Spongebob Squarepants. A petition which calls for a Spongebob Super Bowl tribute for the show creator has gained immense traction.

From the looks of it, fans’ effort to get a Super Bowl tribute seems to be a success. A recent promo video released by Maroon 5 on their official Twitter account has teased that the band has something planned to pay their tribute to Hillenburg. Check it out in the tweet below.

Spongebob’s 20th Birthday special episode will air on May 1.