Ice Cube Offers Update on Long-Awaited Friday Sequel

By Kofi Outlaw

Ice Cube is offering an update on the long-awaited Friday sequel, Last Friday. After Friday became a cult-hit breakout in 1995, it got two sequels released in close proximity (Next Friday in 2000, Friday After Next in 2002) before stalling out. Still, the original Friday holds up as a cult favorite nearly 30 years later – a perfect time to give the franchise another shot with Last Friday. 

Ice Cube has (not surprisingly) been all too outspoken about the fact that things at Warner Bros. have not exactly been smooth when it comes to developing another Friday movie: 

"I don't know. Warner Bros. is weird right now," Cube said when asked about Last Friday in 2022. "I don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're doing. We'd love to have it back. I think it's going be close to a time when we get it back. So, we'll either wait for that time, or we'll keep trying to convince them that they need to let us control the movie. It's my movie, but they have distribution control." 

So where do things stand with Last Friday now? According to Ice Cube: "You know somebody?... maybe they can help us out," Cube joked with ComicBook.com's Chris Killian. 

When it was brought up that an interview answer could go viral and shake things loose, the musician/filmmaker didn't hesitate: 

"Well let's talk loud, man. Send your letters and your complaints to Warner Bros.... Nah... we keeping it happy!" 

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From that little bit of back and forth, it's clear that the delay of Last Friday hasn't changed much in a year, and that Ice Cube is still pretty frustrated with the situation. In 2022, he went as far as saying Warner Bros. is hurting its own pockets by keeping him from making Last Friday: 

"They need to give it to me, and they're going to make money," Cube said. "I'm not about to pay for my own stuff, that's stupid. They need to do the right thing, get it to us, let us turn it into more money, and make the fans happy…We can do a lot with it."

It's ironic to hear Ice Cube having these problems: Friday was the third script he ever wrote (working with musician DJ Pooh) and its comedic vision was very much a counter-intuitive turn to the inner city "hood classic" crime/drama films of the time like Boyz n the Hood, or Menace II Society. Cube being an inexperienced filmmaker; with a mostly unknown cast; plus the unusual subject matter, made Friday a longshot for movie studios, with only New Line Cinema (a WB subsidiary) rolling the dice with a low investment of $3 million. Given everything Cube and Co. made of that initial investment, you'd think Warner Bros. would have no problem returning creative control to him... 

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...But then, this is also why Warner Bros. (Discovery) continues to be the butt of jokes for his baffling decisions – which have most recently resulted in Summer 2023 biggest box office bomb (The Flash) and slate for the rest of the year (Blue Beetle and Aquaman 2) that could be going down right behind it. Luckily for Warner Bros., Barbie is saving the day. 

Editor's note: This interview was conducted prior to the SAG actors' strike.

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