Ice Cube has been vocal about his battle with Warner Bros. over the ownership of his iconic “Friday” film series. Now, the West Coast legend has some encouraging news for fans.
During an interview on Sirius XM’s Flavor Of The Week that aired on Monday, June 17, Ice Cube revealed that the series might be making a comeback after more than 20 years. “We finally got some traction with Warner Bros.,” he told host Flavor Flav. “They have new leadership. My man Mike DeLuca, who used to be at New Line when I first started, when I did the first ‘Friday’, ‘Players Club’, and ‘All About the Benjamin’s’. Mike DeLuca was there, so now he’s running Warner Bros.”
Ice Cube also shared insights into his conversations with the studio, expressing frustration over the delays that have resulted in significant losses. “It was like, ‘Yo, what the f**k is going on with ‘Friday?’ Man, let’s get this back online,’” he said. “I was a little hot ’cause they took so long. John Witherspoon passed away. Tiny passed away. A.J. Johnson passed away. We keep losing people and y’all keep messing around not doing the movie the way it needs to be done. They want to do it, but it’s gotta be done right, or we shouldn’t mess with it. So they finally came to their senses.”
The original trilogy includes ‘Friday’ (1995), ‘Next Friday’ (2000), and ‘Friday After Next’ (2002). Last year, Cube revealed that Warner Bros. owns not only the franchise name but also the names of its characters. “You gotta use the same [intellectual property],” he explained. “Can’t call it ‘Saturday’ without using Craig and Day-Day. So it’s the same thing, really.”
While Ice Cube continues to fight for ownership, he has no plans to enter into a legal battle with Warner Bros. However, he remains determined to convince the studio that they’re wrong. The rap veteran first confirmed he was working on a fourth installment in 2017, but the film has yet to materialize.
During a live taping of ‘Drink Champs’ at the Rock The Bells festival in 2022, Ice Cube explained that he submitted two scripts to Warner Bros., both of which were rejected. “I’m trying to get it out of Warner Brothers, they don’t believe in the culture, man,” he said. “I had two scripts. I wrote one — it was the bomb. They said, ‘We don’t want Craig and Day-Day in jail ’cause they went to jail for selling weed before it was legal!’ Then, after they rejected it, they made all these movies about going to jail: ‘Orange Is The New Black’, ‘Get Hard’. So I wrote another script about youngsters in the hood beefing with the OGs, and Craig has to come back and squash it because Smokey’s son is the new Deebo and he’s wildin’!”
Reflecting on the missed opportunities and the passing of key cast members, Ice Cube added, “They messed around, and then John Witherspoon passed. Then Deebo passed. They just messed it up.”
