Ice Cube Will Never Give Up On His Best Franchise
Ice Cube says he will "never" give up on getting Friday 4 made.
You might not normally think of rapper Ice Cube and English singer Rick Astley as having a lot in common, but apparently when it comes to the Friday franchise — just like the man who unintentionally created one of the Internet’s most enduring memes — Ice Cube is busy singing that he’s never gonna give it up. Speaking to TMZ recently, the L.A. native said he will never give up on making Last Friday. Still, he says there are lines he’s not willing to cross in order to make the film; in particular, he’s not willing to bring Warner Bros. Discovery to court.
TMZ caught up with Ice Cube while the rapper was taking selfies with fans, and asked if the Friday franchise was a “lost cause.” The rapper immediately responded, “No, never.” Asked if he planned to bring Warner Bros. to court, Cube answered, “No, I ain’t gonna sue nobody.”
It was last month during an appearance on Mike Tyson’s Hotboxin podcast that Ice Cube talked about why there hasn’t been another chapter in Friday released since 2002’s Friday After Next. In 2008, Warner Bros acquired New Line Cinema, which holds the distribution rights to the Friday films, and Ice Cube says the studio has kept the fourth film “in development hell.” At the time, the Ride Along star told Tyson and co-host Matt Barnes that he isn’t willing to buy back the rights to Friday, but that Warner Bros. Discovery needs to “do the right thing” and hand the rights back to him.
It does seem strange, particularly in an age of revivals and legacy sequels, that Ice Cube is running into so many roadblocks when it comes to making Last Friday. The stoner comedy film series might not spawn blockbusters like the DCU or Harry Potter, but the films have always made money and they’re relatively low-budget. At a time when Warner Bros. Discovery is struggling with meeting its bottom line, a sequel to a popular series with low overhead seems like a no-brainer.
One possible reason for Warner Bros. keeping the sequel in development hell is that Ice Cube and Friday go hand-in-hand, and while the rapper isn’t as controversial a figure as he was in the late ’80s and early ’90s, he hasn’t left controversy behind completely. Last month he said he lost out on a $9 million payday in an undisclosed film role because he refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and it was widely reported he left the production of Oh Hell No for the same reason. He’s also fielded accusations of antisemitism, including for his support of the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakahn.
With some of Warner Bros. Discovery’s biggest franchises being marred by the controversies of stars like Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, and Ezra Miller, it could be the studio is feeling a little extra-sensitive about being associated with stars who get the wrong kinds of headlines.
