As is the norm when it comes to dissenting discourse on social media, folks are “alwayz into something.” Today, the question of why Faizon Love and Chris Tucker never returned for any of the Friday franchise sequels once again appears to be the topic of conversation.
Per Hot New HipHop, in response to a recent interview where Love said he was only paid $2,500 for his role as Big Worm in the iconic first film and accompanying tweet that implied he was shorted pay for the role, Ice Cube took to social media to clear things up:
“I didn’t rob no fuckin body. The 1995 Friday movie cost $2.3m to make. Shot it in 20 days. Faizon worked 1 day, maybe 2. All the actors got paid scale to do the movie. They could’ve simple[simply] said ‘No’ but they didn’t. So miss me with that shit...”
As for Tucker, Cube also let it be known that they were ready to offer the actor-comedian “$10-12m to do Next Friday,” but that Tucker “turned us down for religious reasons. He didn’t want to cuss or smoke weed on camera anymore.” This explanation falls in line with Tucker’s own comments last month, where he explained he didn’t want to continue to represent those who smoke marijuana because of his portrayal of “Smokey.”
“I don’t want everybody smoking weed and I never really told people this because I kind of forgot about it, but it was one of the reasons why I didn’t do it,” Tucker said at the time. “Because I said, ‘I don’t wanna represent everybody smoking weed.’ And that’s one of the reasons why I said nah. I didn’t wanna keep doing that character. It probably was good for me because it kept me moving to the next phase and [the] next movies.”
Both Tucker and Love have expressed that they may potentially be onboard with returning for a fourth film, though it’s unfortunately being held up by legalities and alleged discriminatory practices at the hands of Warner Bros., as put forth by franchise co-creator Cube. But if everything pans out, we may just get to see these iconic characters back on our screens one last time.