Key Takeaways
- Ice Cube, Aaron McGruder, DJ Pooh and Mike Epps are collaborating on the script for Last Friday, the fourth film of the Friday series.
- Epps described McGruder’s writing as “top tier,” hinting at a fresh and even funnier direction for the film.
- While Chris Tucker’s return as Smokey is still uncertain, discussions with Ice Cube are reportedly ongoing.
Mike Epps guarantees that Last Friday will deliver more laughs than Friday, Next Friday and Friday After Next. Fans have been awaiting updates about the flick since Ice Cube inked a deal with Warner Bros. Entertainment and New Line Cinema in April, and now the project is gaining momentum.
On Thursday (Nov. 13), the comedian, who portrays Day-Day, shared new details about the project on “The Breakfast Club.” Epps first affirmed that the Last Friday writers' room is well underway. “Me, Ice Cube, Aaron McGruder and DJ Pooh were just together sitting in a room writing this movie. The movie [is going to] be crazy,” he confidently shared.
Charlamagne tha God would have been remiss if he did not interject to state, “Now you know when you say ‘Aaron McGruder,’ you excite the whole G**damn internet. Aaron, that’s the creator of ‘The Boondocks’ [and] ‘Black Jesus’… For people who don’t know, he’s a genius. That’s something special right there.” The stand-up comic agreed: “That’s top-tier writing, and I think that’s why Ice Cube went and got him [because] he’s going to bring that to the movie, and [that's] not to say that we [weren't going to] make it hot like we’ve always made it hot, but this is [going to] give it another extension.”
Audiences can still expect Epps to deliver some off-the-cuff lines. “They can write some s**t on the paper, but I'm [going to] say some s**t funnier than whatever you put on the paper. And I'm [going to] give you yours, and then I'm [going to] give you mine, and when you get in the editing room, you [are going to] see which one was better.”
Will Chris Tucker return for the Last Friday movie?
When asked if Chris Tucker would be reprising his role as Smokey, Epps joked, “I don’t know … Cube said he’s been talking to Chris Tucker … I might have to run around and catch his a** coming out of one of these Bible studies or something to see if it’s real.”
Tucker didn’t shoot down talks of his return to the franchise in a March 2024 interview with Atlanta’s V-103. Instead, he explained, “It has to come back right because, like I said, at this point, you know, I’m only doing stuff that I know that I could do my best [at], and I can have a lot of fun.” The movie star appeared in the 1995 cult classic alongside Nia Long, Regina King and others. Epps’ role became a prominent fixture in the 2000 and 2002 sequels.
Whether Tucker joins or not, fans can expect a bold new chapter in the franchise’s legacy.