Chris Tucker on How Weed Played a Role in Him Not Returning to ‘Friday’ Franchise

Since the 2002 release of Friday After Next, much has been speculated on regarding a potential fourth entry in the Friday franchise. And while Chris Tucker only appeared in the 1995 original, which is widely regarded as a cult classic, fans have continued to wonder if the celebrated actor and comedian will ever again take on the role of Smokey. Now, Tucker is elaborating on why he hasn’t revisited the beloved character, as well as what it would take for him to do so.

Tucker explained in a recent interview with Eddie Levert Sr., @leverticus, and @missryanlevert that he was reluctant to embrace the idea of sequels earlier into his career.

At around the 43:13 mark in the video, available below, Tucker praised franchise co-creator Ice Cube for how he managed to keep the franchise moving without his involvement. He also noted that Cube is “spearheading” efforts to get a fourth film out for fans.

“I never really wanted to do another one,” Tucker said. “I always said, because I know my fans love the movies so much [and] they always bring it up, I said, well, if they come to me with a great script and a great idea, I’d definitely consider it. But it’s been so long ago and that character became such a great character. I don’t wanna mess it up.”

After the 45-minute mark, Tucker went deep on a driving force behind his initial decision to turn down the first Friday sequel. According to the actor, who received widespread acclaim and awards buzz for his role in the 2012 David O. Russell drama Silver Linings Playbook, he simply didn’t want to be the face of weed at that time in his life. He also said money wasn’t the impetus for his decision.

“Back then, I gotta tell you, one of the reasons why I didn’t do the second one was because of the weed,” he said. “Because I said, man, that movie became a phenomenon. 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. Because I said, I don’t wanna represent everybody smoking weed.”

In Tucker’s own words, the movie was “more personal” to him than just being a movie.

“And that’s one of  the reasons why I said nah,” he added. “I didn’t wanna keep doing that character. It probably was good for me because it kept me moving to the next phase and next movies.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Tucker reflected on being hastily put on camera when Ye delivered his historic “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people” line during a televised Hurricane Katrina benefit back in 2005.

See the full interview below.

As for the future of the Friday franchise, a Wall Street Journal report published over the summer outlined the alleged underlying issues between Cube and WarnerMedia that have resulted in the delay of the fourth film.