There hasn't been a new movie in the hit comedy series Friday since 2002's holiday-themed Friday After Next. However, star Ice Cube has now said that a fourth installment was planned for release until very recently. In a new interview, Seth Meyer mentioned that the original Friday's 25th anniversary passed last week. Ice Cube responds by noting that everything "was ready to go for the fourth Friday" before the 2019 death of actor and comedian John Witherspoon (Friday's Willie Jones) "threw us all back."

　　"We're still grieving over the loss of such a talented, special man," Ice Cube continues. "He wasn't just funny. Everybody saw his funny side, but he was also a serious, thoughtful guy."

　　Last year, Ice Cube was still hopeful that Last Friday--the fourth movie's working title--would be released in time for 2020 and the first film's 25th anniversary. Now, it seems far less certain when, and if, the movie will release. "Hopefully we'll figure it out," Ice Cube tells Meyers. "But for now, it's really on the back burner." Witherspoon portrayed Willie Jones, the father of Ice Cube's character Craig, and was a central character in each of the three Friday movies. "We feel like we all lost our pops, our grandpops, our uncle," Ice Cube says of the production's reaction to Witherspoon's death.

　　Although the fourth Friday is on indefinite hold, Ice Cube can be seen in The High Note, which will skip theaters for a paid on-demand release this May 29th. If fate is kind, we can also hope he'll be involved in some capacity in the upcoming Anaconda reboot.

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