Ice Cube & Mike Epps Say ‘Last Friday’ Will Be About Gentrification
After years of rumors, the franchise's fourth installment has finally been greenlit and will start shooting later this year.
Black News 
Last Friday is really happening.
We’ve covered the rumors over the last couple of years, like when Ice Cube told Flavor Flav that the fourth installment of the beloved film franchise “finally got some traction with Warner Bros.” back in 2024 and when Mike Epps told The Breakfast Club last year that he had recently gotten word that a deal was in place. Now it looks like the ink is dry and it’s finally happening.
Cube and Epps sat down with Entertainment Tonight to confirm the news and exclusively told the outlet that Last Friday will deal with the gentrification of their neighborhood. And when asked if Chris Tucker would return as Smokey, the role that made him a star, the pair seemed optimistic.
“We’re talking to him and he wants to come back,” Epps said, with Cube adding, “He’s one of the best. I think he’s going to do it.”
Cube previously told Cam Newton about a rejected script idea where Craig and Day-Day were owners of a dispensary who suddenly found themselves in jail. “I wrote a script where Craig and Day-Day, they had a dispensary. They had a flash mob in there and they caught one of the kids and beat his little a–, and they end up going to jail,” he began. “So they in jail duckin’ Deebo, they in jail duckin’ Damon, they in jail duckin’ the Joker brothers. And then they get into a rehab — and I was trying to get Chris [Tucker] back — Smokey was running the rehab, but it was a bullsh– rehab where he was taking everybody’s weed and smoking it in the basement.”
However, studio executives weren’t too fond of the idea and were worried about jail not being funny. “They were like, ‘Jail’s not funny, it’s too much time in jail. How can you make jail funny?’ And I’m like, ‘Man, y’all don’t know what the f— y’all talking about,’” he said. “Then they come out with Orange Is the New Black, Let’s Go to Prison — all these movies about that. And I’m like, ‘See, more Hollywood execs don’t know what the f— they talking about.’”
Shooting is set to start later this year, but in the meantime, you can check out The Everyday’s Friday: Lyrics, Lougin’ and Laughing show in Long Beach, California, on July 17 (a Friday, of course) to celebrate Friday’s 30th anniversary.
You can watch the clip below.
