It doesn’t seem likely Ice Cube’s Last Friday will ever actually happen, but if it does, don’t expect to see a CGI John Witherspoon appear in the movie. In the past, Cube had publicly expressed his desire on many occasions to see a fourth Friday movie enter development. Those plans may have been completely dashed following the death of Witherspoon in October, as he was such an important part of the series. While the use of CGI opens the door to resurrect deceased celebrities with new “performances,” this will apparently not be an option for Witherspoon in a potential Friday 4.
Recently, a fan on Twitter directly asked Ice Cube if we were still going to get a fourth movie or if the project was off the table after John Witherspoon died. “Back to the drawing board since New Line Cinema was slow on green lighting the LAST FRIDAY script that was full of Mr. Jones,” the rapper-turned-actor stated, suggesting that Friday 4 is still theoretically possible, but would require developing an entirely new story from scratch. He also again makes it clear that the reason we never got the movie up to now has been due to the studio sitting on the script, as Cube has been trying for years now to make the movie happen.
Approached by TMZ at LAX, Cube was asked if he would consider using CGI to bring back Pops for Last Friday. “No, never,” Cube bluntly state, emphasizing that going this route was not even a remote possibility. He was also asked if there were any more updates on the potential project’s status, as far as whether he plans to move forward with a new screenplay, to which Cube replied, “It’s on New Line, man.” Of course, this doesn’t exactly sound too promising, because the studio wasn’t willing to greenlight the project with Witherspoon on board, and Last Friday is certainly harder to sell without him.
Last month, while attending Witherspoon’s celebration of life service, Cube had also spoke rather candidly about the situation with Last Friday and New Line. “I really apologize to my friend for not getting the next Friday movie made. It’s not my fault,” Cube stated, blaming the movie’s lack of progress on “dumbass people in Hollywood, at New Line Cinema.” The former N.W.A. rapper also stressed how they submitted two screenplays to the studio and spent many years lobbying for Last Friday, and seems to feel some guilt over his inability to get the gang back together for one more movie.
Throughout all three Friday movies, Witherspoon shined as “Pops,” the hilarious father of Ice Cube’s character. For many fans of the franchise, Witherspoon was the standout character and any potential sequel could definitely never be as entertaining without his presence. At this point, it’s becoming less and less likely Last Friday will ever enter production, but we’ll always have the Friday trilogy. This news comes to us from TMZ.
