The Friday franchise has been coasting on fumes and fan devotion for more than two decades, but the long-promised final chapter finally has someone calling the shots behind the camera. Lawrence Lamont, the filmmaker behind One of Them Days, has signed on to direct Last Friday, the fourth and closing entry in the stoner-comedy saga that made Ice Cube a movie star, according to an exclusive report.
The news lands with the kind of weight that only a franchise this beloved can generate. For years, talk of another Friday has felt like a running joke between Cube and his fans - a promise that kept getting pushed back while the actor and mogul built an empire elsewhere. Now there's a director attached, and not just any director: Lamont is coming off a project that proved he can wring sharp, lived-in comedy out of everyday chaos, which is precisely the register Friday has always thrived in.
From South Central to the Director's Chair
For the uninitiated - and honestly, how? - the Friday series kicked off back in 1995 with a deceptively simple premise: a day in the life of Craig Jones and his buddy Smokey, played by Chris Tucker, as they scramble to scrape together rent money and dodge neighborhood trouble. It became a cultural touchstone, a late-night cable staple, and an endless well of quotable lines. Sequels followed in Next Friday and Friday After Next, with Mike Epps stepping in as Craig's cousin Day-Day.
What makes Lamont an intriguing fit is that One of Them Days was itself a grounded, funny, character-first story about people navigating a very specific slice of life under pressure. Swap in a different setting and a different set of personalities, and you've got the tonal DNA of Friday. Cube and company have always insisted that these movies are comedies with real heart underneath the smoke and the slapstick, and Lamont appears to understand that balance instinctively.
The Cast Is Coming Back - Mostly
Confirmed for the final ride are Ice Cube reprising his role as Craig Jones, the perpetually unbothered straight man at the center of the storm, and Mike Epps returning as Day-Day. That pairing has anchored the franchise since its second installment, and their odd-couple rhythm is arguably the engine that keeps the whole thing humming.
Notably absent from the confirmed cast is Chris Tucker, whose Smokey remains the beating heart of the original film. Tucker has spent years distancing himself from the franchise, and no announcement suggests that's changing. Fans have made peace with it, mostly. The door has always seemed cracked open, if never fully ajar. Epps himself has been one of the loudest champions of getting the band back together, and his presence alone guarantees the wisecracking energy that Friday audiences show up for.
What remains unknown is the plot - where Craig and Day-Day find themselves this time, and how the series intends to close the book. Given the title Last Friday, expect the filmmakers to lean into the finality of it all, though the franchise has never been precious about continuity. Details like a release date and runtime haven't materialized yet, and the project sits at an early stage with no rating data to speak of.
Why This One Feels Different
There's a reason this announcement hits harder than the usual "sequel in development" noise. Friday has become something of a folk myth in Hollywood - a franchise that fans quote religiously, that launched careers, and that somehow never got its proper sendoff. Cube has been vocal for years about wanting to make it happen, and the hold-up has always been the same story: studios dragging their feet, budgets getting squeezed, deals falling apart. Attaching a director of the moment signals that Last Friday is finally moving from wishful thinking to actual production planning.
Lamont's dance card is filling up as his profile rises, and getting him locked in suggests the producers are thinking about more than just a nostalgia cash-grab. If he can bring the same confident, economical storytelling he showed on One of Them Days, the franchise might get the ending it deserves rather than the one it's been threatening to stumble into.
For now, the details are thin and the date is anybody's guess. But for a fanbase that's been waiting since 2002 for a proper conclusion, even a confirmed director feels like a reason to fire up the original, pour something cold, and settle in. Craig Jones is coming back. Let's hope the neighborhood is ready.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
