Ice Cube: Friday sequels in legal limbo

If you’re wondering why Ice Cube’s comedy franchise, Friday, hasn’t gotten a reunion in this era of legacy sequels, you’re not the only one. It definitely wasn’t due to a lack of trying, with series mastermind Ice Cube explaining that he’s written not one – but two – scripts for a new Friday movie. The problem is that both were rejected by Warner Bros, who hold the rights to the franchise.

Ice Cube revealed his issues with WB during an appearance on the Drink Champs Podcast (excerpted by Billboard), recorded while the rapper appeared at L.L. Cool J’s Rock the Bells Festival.

The first of the two screenplays entered around Cube’s Mike and his sidekick, Mike Epps’ Da Da going to jail for selling weed. “After they rejected it, they had all these movies about going to jail. So I was like, ‘Man, see, y’all f— me up.’ The other script was about the youngsters in the hood having beef with the OGs, and Craig has to come back and squash that. Smokey’s [Chris Tucker’s] son is the new Deebo [Tommy Lister Jr.], and he’s wilding.”

Cube now seems resigned to the fact that a future instalment of the Friday franchise is unlikely unless he gets the rights away from WB. “I’m tryna get it out of Warner Bros. They don’t believe in the culture, man.”

The rapper/actor also acknowledged that were a legacy sequel to happen, it’s unlikely that Chris Tucker would return as Smokey. He notoriously sat out the second and third films in the franchise after becoming a megastar in the Rush Hour series. Since then he’s rarely appeared in front of the camera. “Chris is slippy,” he said, adding, “but me and Chris is cool.” Sadly, two of the franchise’s most beloved players, John Witherspoon and Tiny Lister, passed away in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Do you think WB should return the rights to the Friday franchise to Ice Cube? Let us know in the comments!