Ice Cube Closes Deal For ‘Last Friday’
April 4, 2025
A major studio exec has confirmed that Ice Cube’s “Last Friday” is on the way.
Ice Cube has officially received the green light from film studios to create the final installment in the Friday franchise.
New Line President and CCO Richard Brener made the announcement during an in-depth Q&A with The Hollywood Reporter. According to Brener, Ice Cube has the support to write and star in the new film, just as he did in the previous three installments.
“We are making another Friday,” Brener revealed. “We just closed a deal with Ice Cube to write and star. It’s going to be called Last Friday.”
Last Friday will be the fourth entry in the comedy series and the first in over 20 years, following Friday After Next in 2002. The film’s announcement comes less than a year after Ice Cube (real name O’Shea Jackson) said the highly anticipated film was in the works.
“We’re working on it. We finally got some traction with Warner Bros.,” Ice Cube said on Flavor Flav’s SiriusXM show Flavor of the Week.
“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 fu*k is going on with “Friday”? Man, let’s get this sh*t back online.’”
In 2022, Ice Cube appeared on Mike Tyson’s Hotboxin‘ podcast, where he explained the delay was being caused by Warner Bros. not giving him the rights to his film back.
“Warner Bros. is weird right now,” Cube said at the time. “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.”
Ice Cube has starred in all three Friday films—Friday (1995), Next Friday (2000), and Friday After Next (2002). He co-wrote the first film with DJ Pooh and had all three Friday movies developed by New Line under De Luca’s leadership. Warner Bros. later acquired New Line, gaining control of the Friday franchise rights, leading to the dispute over the film rights.
With the deal now closed, fans are eager to see how Ice Cube plans to wrap up his cult classic franchise. The films have featured stars like Chris Tucker, who played Pookie in Friday; Mike Epps, who portrayed Day Day, Craig’s (Ice Cube) cousin, in Next Friday and Friday After Next; and Katt Williams, whose breakout role as Money Mike became iconic. Tommy Lister Jr. famously played the notorious Deebo in Friday and Next Friday, though he passed away in 2020 at 62.
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