Chris Tucker Reveals Why He Never Returned to the 'Friday' Franchise

"It probably was good for me because it kept me moving to the next phase and next movies," actor Chris Tucker said about his decision not to reprise his role of Smokey in the Friday films

Chris Tucker has a few celebrated roles from his film career, and one that fans have always wanted to see him reprise is Smokey from the first Friday film in 1995.

On Friday, the Fifth Element star, 50, reflected on his decision to never go back to the franchise, revealing one somewhat surprising reason.

"Back then, I gotta tell you, one of the reasons why I didn't do the second one was because of the weed," Tucker said in an interview with All Urban Central.

"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.' "

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"And that's one of the reasons why I said 'Nah,' " the Rush Hour star 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."

Tucker also mentioned other reasoning for his decision not to go back to Friday, saying, "I never thought about doing sequels. I always wanted to do a good job, and keep moving to the next movie."

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The actor's selective nature is evident in his repertoire — since appearing in 1998's franchise-spawning Rush Hour and its sequels in 2001 and 2007, he has only appeared in two other feature-length titles — 2012's Silver Linings Playbook and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk in 2016.

As for Friday, star and co-writer Ice Cube created two sequels, Next Friday in 2000 and Friday After Next in 2002.

Regarding the idea of coming back for a long-rumored fourth installment, Tucker allowed that he would "definitely consider it."

"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."