After 24 years, Ice Cube fans are finally getting what they’ve been asking for — and it’s not even Christmas.
The West Coast legend played the lead in the “Friday” film franchise that touched generations, young and old, and new fans will now get a taste.
The original 1995 comedy, directed by F. Gary Gray, carries bittersweet memories. Beloved cast members John Witherspoon, Tommy “Tiny” Lister Jr. and Anthony Johnson have since died, leaving behind memorable performances that helped make the franchise a classic.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ice Cube tapped “One of Them Days” director Lawrence Lamont to direct the highly anticipated film, “Last Friday.”
Reports confirmed that Ice Cube will return and reprise his role as Craig Jones in the fourth “Friday” film. He will also produce the movie.
But since Lamont’s directorial news was announced Oct. 27, most people aren’t so concerned about Ice Cube’s involvement.
Instead, fans are eager to know whether Chris Tucker will reprise his iconic role as Smokey.
In the original “Friday,” chaos ensues after Smokey (Chris Tucker) encourages his friend Craig (Ice Cube), who has recently lost his job, to smoke marijuana.
Ironically, smoking pot is the exact reason Tucker chose not to return for the following films. Instead, comedian Mike Epps replaced him in “Next Friday” and “Friday After Next.”
In a 2021 interview with All Urban Central, Tucker said, “One of the reasons why I didn’t do the second one was because of the weed.”
He acknowledged that “Friday” grew into a cultural phenomenon. However, he turned down the sequels because he no longer wanted to promote substance use.
“I said, ‘I don’t wanna represent everybody smoking weed,’” he said.” And that’s one of the reasons why I said ‘Nah.’ I didn’t wanna keep doing that character. It probably was good for me because it kept me moving to the next phase and next movies.”
Tucker admitted he never wanted to make sequels. He wanted to make the first film, do well, and move on.
But three years after “Friday,” Tucker co-starred with Jackie Chan in the action-comedy film “Rush Hour.” The duo went on to star in two sequels. This year, they confirmed plans to reunite for a fourth installment.
One person who wants to see Tucker wrote, “Great director and writer. Please bring Chris Tucker back.”
A second fan excited about the news typed, “A new Friday movie with Ice Cube writing again is the best news comedy fans have heard in years. Is Chris Tucker coming back?”
A third person demanded, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“Friday After Next” was released in 2002, and since then fans have been getting the runaround for a follow-up.
“It’s taking way too long for them to finally get this movie out lol & The only interest I have in this movie is if they’re gonna finally have Chris Tucker and Mike Epps in a Friday movie together. That’s the selling point.”
Another said, “Too late.”
There is no word yet on which cast members will return for the fourth film, but Tucker recently gave fans reason to hope he might reprise his role.
Back in August, he celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Chris Tucker Foundation and spoke with WSB TV.
He said, “I’m producing a lot of my own stuff, writing a lot of my own stuff. And also, yes, we have ‘Rush Hour.’ We’re talking about that. We’re talking about another ‘Friday.’ So we’ll see if those happen.”
Rumors circulated that Tucker declined to reprise his role as Smokey because of the pay. However, he refuted the claims in an interview with All Urban Central, and Ice Cube also pushed back against the rumors on Twitter.
In a 2021 post, he responded to a fan who asked him about the rumor.
Ice Cube said, “We were ready to pay Chris Tucker $10-12m to do Next Friday but he turned us down for religious reasons. He didn’t want to cuss or smoke weed on camera anymore.”
The following year, “Wild ’N Out” star DC Young Fly claimed on “Club Shay Shay” that Tucker told him he would only return for another “Friday” film if DC Young Fly played his son.
Tucker did not confirm or deny that claim.
Some fans have complained that Cube has taken too long to release the film, which has been in the works for about 15 years. However, the delay was partly tied to a dispute with Warner Bros. over the rights to the “Friday” franchise, which Cube sought to reclaim.
Ice Cube has claimed that Warner Bros. rejected multiple scripts he submitted for the sequel. He has also said the studio wants him to buy back the franchise rights, a deal he has refused, arguing that the company should return them to him because he co-created the original film.
“Last Friday” is slated to be released in 2027.
