“Friday” fans, rejoice.
According to one of the stars of the franchise, the Friday movies are coming back—and we’ve even got a few clues as to who will be in them.
When Friday was released in 1995, it was a surprise hit, quickly spawning two sequels: Next Friday (2000) and Friday After Next (2002). There seems to be plenty of life in the franchise…but we haven’t heard anything new from Ice Cube’s camp in 15 years.
Well, to be fair, we’ve heard rumors, which is what prompted Rolling Stone to ask Cube about the Friday movies in 2016.
“To me, it’s one of the number one movies you check out when you’re baked, or you’re getting down,” Ice Cube told the magazine. “There’s people that have ‘Friday’ parties, where they rent all three movies and just kind of enjoy ‘em.”
“It’s morphed into this big thing, and it started off as this little, cool idea,” he added. To me, that’s what I’m most proud about: It’s become part of not only just American culture, but there’s people all over the world that really love it. That’s how movies should be.”
Still, Cube has shied away from rumors that a new film was coming. Until, apparently, now.
The revelation came when one of the original film’s stars let something slip in a radio interview.
John Witherspoon, who played Ice Cube’s dad in the original movies, spoke to Power 95.2 in Orlando. He took a phone call and came back with some news.”I was at the airport and I saw Ice Cube,” Witherspoon explained. “Cube said they were gonna do another Friday. He said he wanted to meet with me last week but he couldn’t make it so we gonna meet next week and get things together.”
“There’s a new guy at Warner Bros,” Witherspoon added. “Thank God.”
So, who’s going to be in the new “Friday” movie?
For a time, there were rumors that Ice Cube’s son, O’Shea Jackson Jr., would play a starring role in the next film. Those seemed to fizzle, however, when Jackson Jr. responded to point-black questions from HipHollywood.
“No, there’s nothing down yet, there’s nothing,” he said. As it turns out, the “yet” in that sentence may be key.
While we don’t have any idea as to why the film couldn’t get made prior to 2017, we can speculate a bit. Last year, Ice Cube had massive success with Straight Outta Compton, an N.W.A. biopic. It’s possible that the big studios are more willing to finance an Ice Cube project following the tremendous performance of that film.
Several other franchises should see updates over the next few years.
Friday isn’t the only cult classic due for an update. Scarface will reportedly get a remake in 2018 starring Diego Luna, while Ocean’s Eight, a film set in the Ocean’s 11 universe, will hit theaters some time in 2018. This year, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is also set to appear in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, while a remake of cult horror flick Flatliners will feature Ellen Page and Kiefer Sutherland.
We’re looking forward to those—but the new Friday film is on another level. Check out Witherspoon’s interview below.