Friday is a beloved American film franchise. Ice Cube’s 1995 sleeper hit spun off two sequels and helped introduce the world to a handful of future superstars, from Chris Tucker to Bernie Mac, Nia Long, Mike Epps, and more. Despite it continuing to be a treasured entity, Ice Cube has struggled for decades to get a final installment made and give the Friday world a proper send-off. Fans have been offering him alternatives to make a proper finale without Warner Bros. input since they’re the ones holding up the movie. Cube says that it is not as easy as just renaming the film Thursday or Saturday.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Friday After Next, the third installment in Ice Cube’s film series. The movie franchise became a wildly successful property despite a really modest budget on the first film of only $ 1 million. Various actors have come out over the years to discuss how much money they made that first go-round, with many only pocketing a couple $100 bucks for a movie that would go on to become a huge hit.
Following the success of the first Friday, Chris Tucker’s career took off. The actor signed on to appear in Rush Hour and took home $3 million, compared to the $10,000 he made on Friday. The first installment of Rush Hour made more than $240 million worldwide which allowed Chris Tucker to negotiate $20 million for the second film, and $25 million for the third film. The absence of Chris Tucker’s character, ‘Smokey’ left a huge hole in Friday that was eventually filled by Mike Epps. Cube and Mike reunited one last time for Friday After Next, and Ice Cube has been in development hell ever since trying to get the Last Friday project off.
In the 20 years since, several key characters from the series have passed away. This includes Tommy Lister Jr, John Witherspoon, Bernie Mac, Anthony AJ Johnson, Yvette Wilson, and Justin Pierce. Ice Cube expressed his frustration with the next film taking so long considering he had plans to bring a lot of those characters back to the hood. ‘They just f—d it up,’ the producer shared.
Ice Cube has become a bonafide movie star, as have the likes of Mike Epps and Nia Long, Meagan Good, and several others. Cube son O’Shea Jackson has become a star as well, and many are hoping to see him take on the mantle. DC Youngboy recently alleged that Chris Tucker told him he’d return as well if DC played his character Smokey’s son. The title Last Friday has also been floating around and already has an IMDB account.
Good. The last thing we need is another reboot from a movie 20+ years old RT @DailyLoud: Ice Cube says Warner Bros. rejected new “Friday” script 👀 pic.twitter.com/W3l3KOYe0y
— Queen 👸🏾🇳🇬 (@QueenTee86) October 6, 2022
Ice Cube reveals that he initially tried to set plans into motion back in 2015 for the original movie’s 20th anniversary. Cube began drafting a script as early as 2011 to present to parent company Warner Bros. Things stalled, and the movie was stuck in development until the script was eventually turned down. The team went back to the drawing board and tried again, working on a script through 2018 that was based on Ice Cube and Mike Epps’s characters trying to break out of jail. New Line Cinema and Warner Bros still did not love it and kept asking for rewrites until John Witherspoon passed away in 2019, putting everything on hold.
Ice Cube recently opened up about wanting to take the property somewhere else but having issues due to ownership. According to the producer many people have been in his ear suggesting he change the name of the movie to ‘Thursday’ or ‘Saturday.’ Unfortunately, because Warner Bros. owns the rights to the movie it’s not that simple. Even if he decided to name the final film by a different day of the week, the moment he used any of the characters’ names, it would be in immediate violation of their contract.
With that being said, any movie Ice Cube creates without Warner Bros. can not include Craig, Day-Day, Smokey, or any other beloved character from the franchise. “Once I take the character’s names, it becomes a property of Friday,” he recently told Movieweb. Ice Cube isn’t interested in creating a brand new ‘Friday’ movie without the characters, so that keeps him negotiating with Warner Bros. despite how challenging it’s become.
Many characters from the film have already expressed interest in returning. Mike Epps spoke about the possibility of another Friday while visiting Big Boy in the Neighborhood back in 2019. Big Boy pressed Epps on the whether another Friday will ever happen. The comedian stated, ” That’s a Ice Cube question. Ice Cube is the sole leader of that whole situation. Check out the video below.
