It’s been 12 years since we got the last “Friday” movie with the Christmas-set “Friday After Next,” but Ice Cube — star, writer, and producer of the popular film series — isn’t giving up hope on at least one more installment.
Speaking with Flavor Flav for his SirusXM show “Flavor of the Week,” Cube even announced that a fourth film may finally be in development.
“We’re working on it. We finally got some traction with Warner Bros.,” Cube said. “They have new leadership, my man Mike De Luca, who used to be at New Line when I first started, when I first did the first ‘Friday’ and ‘Players Club’ and ‘All About the Benjamins.’ Mike De Luca was there. So, now he’s running Warner Bros. And him and my man Michael Gruber was like, ‘Yo, what the fuck is going on with ‘Friday’? Man, let’s get this shit back online.’”
In reaction to Gruber’s comments, Cube said, “I was a little hot because they had took so long. You know, John Witherspoon passed away, Tiny [Tommy Lister. Jr.] passed away, A.J. Johnson passed away. So I’m like, man, we keep losing people and y’all keep dickin’ around, not doing the movie the way it need to be done. They want to do it, but the key is, it got to be done right or we shouldn’t fuck with it.”
IndieWire reached out to Warner Bros. for comment on the development of a fourth “Friday” film.
Cube has been open about his struggles with Warner Bros. in the past, as well as other industry issues. Cube told The Wall Street Journal in 2021 that he’d been in development on “Last Friday,” the fourth film in the series, for a decade, but the studio kept delaying the project. At the time, Cube and his lawyers had wanted WB to surrender their rights over the “Friday” franchise, pointing at discrimination as one of the reasons behind the studio’s refusal to make the film.
According to WSJ: “The possibility of discrimination has also emerged as a flashpoint in the conversations. In one letter, Ice Cube’s representative wrote that movies he has done for the studio ‘are habitually underfunded in comparison with projects featuring white casts and creative teams.’ The correspondence points to other Ice Cube films he says weren’t well supported.”
A spokesperson for Warner Bros. said at the time that any discrimination complaints are “grounded in a libelous set of knowing falsehoods,” adding, “We strongly disagree with any claims of discriminatory treatment, and stand by our ongoing and proven commitment to support diverse voices and storytellers and will continue to do so as we move forward.”
Thankfully, it seems Cube and Warner Bros. are on better terms with one another and ready to get to work. Let’s hope we won’t have to wait too many more Fridays for the next installment.
