Last Friday has taken a substantial step from long-running possibility toward an actual production. Lawrence Lamont has been selected to direct the fourth entry in Ice Cube’s Friday film series. Ice Cube wrote the screenplay and is attached to return as star and producer, with Bob Teitel and CubeVision’s Michael Gruber also producing.
The director hire matters because it answers one of the most consequential questions a sequel needs to settle: who will shape the film’s comic rhythm, performances and visual point of view. It does not answer every question surrounding Last Friday, however. A full cast has not been announced, and there is still no confirmation that Chris Tucker will return as Smokey. Mike Epps has discussed coming back as Day-Day, but his involvement has not been formally listed as part of a complete cast announcement.
There is also no release date in the available information. What has been established is more practical, and arguably more meaningful at this stage: the screenplay is written, Cube is set to star, a director is attached, producers are in place, and the project has received California film tax incentives tied to a planned 40-day Southern California shoot.
A fourth Friday film now has a director and a production framework
New Line Cinema selected Lamont for Last Friday, placing a filmmaker with a recent, successful neighborhood comedy behind a franchise defined by its characters, setting and sharp interpersonal banter.
Lamont directed One of Them Days, a comedy about two Los Angeles roommates trying to make up rent money. The film took in more than $51 million worldwide against a reported $14 million budget. Those figures do not guarantee what a new Friday will look like, but they provide tangible evidence that Lamont has delivered a character-centered Los Angeles comedy with an audience-facing commercial result.
The connection is broader than location. Friday has always derived much of its personality from the people around its central characters: neighbors, relatives, friends and unwanted visitors who make an ordinary day increasingly unpredictable. A story rooted in friendship, money problems and a tightly observed local environment naturally shares some thematic ground with Lamont’s most recent feature. That makes the hire easier to understand without assuming the two films will have the same plot, tone or cast.
Lamont’s route to feature directing also includes music videos, including extensive work with Big Sean and collaborations with J. Cole and Nas. He received an MTV Video Music Award for “Light,” and his work on One of Them Days earned him the African American Film Critics Association’s Breakthrough Director Award.
Music-video work can involve creating a clear visual identity in a short time, while feature comedy demands sustained pacing across an entire story. Neither discipline automatically substitutes for the other, but Lamont’s background suggests experience leading visual storytelling before he moved into features. Last Friday gives him a different assignment again: extending a comedy property whose existing characters and audience expectations are unusually well established.
Related coverage includes Lawrence Lamont Set to Direct Ice Cube’s ‘Last Friday’.
What the California incentive says—and what it does not say
The California Film Commission approved Last Friday for state tax incentives earlier this month. The production received approximately $11.4 million in credits, with filming expected to take place in Southern California over 40 days.
A tax incentive is a government program designed to encourage film and television production in a particular area. In simple terms, qualifying production spending can make a shoot financially more attractive in that state. It is an important sign of planning because an application is linked to a proposed production footprint, but it is not the same thing as a public start-of-filming announcement. The available details point to a project preparing to work in Southern California; they do not establish exact shoot dates or confirm that cameras are already rolling.
The plan is significant for a series so closely associated with South Los Angeles. Cube welcomed the opportunity to make the movie where the franchise originated, emphasizing that longstanding connection. Returning to Southern California is therefore not just a budgetary or logistical detail. It supports continuity between the new installment and the setting that helped make the earlier films distinct.
For viewers, the practical impact of the 40-day expectation is limited: it gives a sense of the proposed production duration but reveals nothing definitive about the story’s scale, its number of locations, or the final cut. It is best read as evidence that the production has moved beyond an abstract pitch and into the type of concrete planning that requires a shooting schedule and regional spending plan.
The long road from the original Friday to Last Friday
The first Friday, directed by F. Gary Gray, arrived in 1995. It introduced Ice Cube’s Craig Jones and Chris Tucker’s Smokey. The film later became the first chapter in a three-film run: Next Friday followed in 2000, and Friday After Next arrived in 2002. Mike Epps joined the franchise as Day-Day in the later films.
That 2002 release remains the most recent Friday movie, making Last Friday the first planned screen continuation in more than two decades. The elapsed time brings both an opportunity and a challenge. An older franchise can return with a built-in audience and characters people remember, but it also has to determine how much of its appeal depends on a reunion and how much can be carried by a new scenario, new characters or a changed environment.
Nothing announced so far resolves that creative balance. The known facts are narrower: Cube wrote the script, will star and produce, and Lamont will direct. It would be premature to infer a storyline, identify characters beyond the names already associated with the series, or promise a specific kind of nostalgia-driven reunion.
Still, Cube’s central involvement gives the project a direct connection to the franchise’s past. A writer-star-producer can play several distinct roles. The writer shapes the script; the star anchors the on-screen performance; and the producer participates in guiding the project toward completion. In this case, Cube’s involvement in all three capacities means the person returning as Craig is also closely tied to the screenplay and the production side. Lamont, meanwhile, will be responsible for directing that material into a finished feature.
The cast questions that remain open
The largest public unknown is who else will join Cube. Epps has discussed returning as Day-Day, a character who became part of the franchise through the later installments. Yet discussion of a return is not the same as a finalized, announced casting slate. Until one is released, audiences should treat his participation as unresolved.
Tucker’s Smokey is an even more prominent question because he was Craig’s counterpart in the 1995 original. There is no confirmation that Tucker will return for Last Friday. The possibility of Craig and Smokey sharing the screen again will naturally be of interest to viewers who associate the first film with their pairing, but it remains speculation rather than an announced element of the fourth movie.
That distinction is worth keeping clear as a long-awaited sequel gathers momentum. Fans often use “reunion” to describe the return of a series, but a franchise continuation and a complete original-cast reunion are separate things. Last Friday is moving forward with its director and core creative team identified. Its full ensemble has not been disclosed.
Why Lamont’s selection is the clearest new signal
Directors are not merely technical overseers. In comedy, the director’s work shapes timing, reactions, escalation and the degree to which a scene feels spontaneous or carefully composed. The original Friday made room for a neighborhood full of personalities around Craig and Smokey, while its sequels expanded the world with additional characters. The new film’s eventual approach is not known, but Lamont’s selection establishes who will make those artistic decisions in partnership with Cube and the producing team.
It also gives the project a director whose recent feature has already been compared to Friday for neighborhood humor and its focus on friendship. Comparisons are not a substitute for a finished movie, and the new film should not be presumed to replicate another comedy’s formula. They do explain why Lamont is a relevant fit for a property that needs its setting and relationships to feel as essential as the jokes.
The announcement arrives after years in which Cube publicly described difficulties reaching an agreement with New Line and Warner Bros. A deal allowing him to write and star in another installment was secured in April 2025. The director announcement, combined with the incentive approval, makes the project’s next phase more defined than those earlier discussions.
For now, the reliable picture is straightforward: Last Friday has a screenplay by Ice Cube, Lamont as director, Cube returning to star and produce, Bob Teitel and Michael Gruber producing, and an incentive-backed plan for a 40-day Southern California shoot. Casting details, including whether Epps and Tucker return, have yet to be confirmed. For more entertainment developments, see our coverage of Amy Poehler’s thoughts on romance and gore in The Pitt.
