Filmmaker Malcolm D. Lee has long considered how he would end the stories of the "Groomsmen" team: Lance (Morris Chestnut), Shelby (Melissa De Sousa), Harper (Taye Diggs), Candace (Regina Hall), Quentin (Terrence Howard), Robyn (Sanaa Lathan), Jordan (Nia Long), and Murch (Harold Perrineau). And after two blockbuster movies, the creator/executive producer/co-executive producer confirms that “The Best Man: The Final Chapters” is indeed the end.
“I have no other story to tell with this group of friends. I want to finish what I started," Lee told Variety, as he prepared to premiere the first footage of the limited series during the Martha's Vineyard Black Film Festival earlier this month.
Stars: Mia Rose Morgan, Sinorice Moss,Terrence Terrell
"When the first 'Best Man' came out, I definitely had no intention of doing a sequel, but if I did it would be 10 years later when they had a chance to live some life," he says. , recounting how it took almost 15 years in his place.
When “The Best Man Holiday” debuted in 2013, the sequel grossed more than $71 million at the box office. Lee was prepared to end the series with two more movies, but as the world changes, and with the advent of streaming and the rise of limited series, "The Final Chapters" came to Peacock for an eight-episode run.
“I really want to wrap up these stories for the fans, but I think we'll just let it end there. If I had to do more, it would be me driving it,” says Lee. “These actors have other roles to play; Let's end up in a good place. By the way, we could have ended it with 'Best Man Holiday,' but we ended with a cliffhanger, and I thought, 'Hey, let's at least answer this 'Is Quentin getting married?' question."
So, to fill in those blank spaces for fans, Lee teamed up with TV veteran Dayna Lynne North to create the Peacock series, working with a virtual writers room to set story beats and infuse them with the signature mix. of films of humor, drama and emotion.
“Having essentially double [the length of two films] allowed us to dive deeper into the characters, their own journeys, and give them season arcs over the course of eight hours of storytelling time,” Lee says of the transition to the new format. "It's definitely more expansive."
“The Final Chapters” is also Lee's first real foray into television, and the process required a bit of adjusting. After flying solo as a writer-director on films, he enjoyed the process of working with others.
“It was a different dynamic because before it was just me doing it,” says Lee. “I had very strong ideas about what I wanted to do in these eight episodes, but to have these really smart, committed writers who love the characters and care about them is a great sounding board, more than a sounding board, they were totally committed. Who were these characters with and what did they want to see them do?
North was already a huge fan of the franchise when she signed on as co-executive producer, and she told Lee that she and her group of friends from her college found the films deeply relatable.
"I remember when we went to see 'The Best Man' in our knockoff versions of the designers [the characters were wearing], and we saw 'The Best Man Holiday' in slightly better versions of its designers," North recalls saying. him, explaining to Lee her connection to this world. “You go through those phases as friends: some get married, some stay single, and even friendships evolve into that place where you think, 'Are we going to get a friendship divorce? Will we be able to get through these different phases of our lives?’”
Ultimately, the new project represents a meeting of minds between the films' creator and franchise fan-turned-writer-executive-producer, as the pair worked with a team of writers, the majority of whom were women. Together, they have created a fitting ending to the story of this beloved group of friends, whose friendship is like a living organism, growing and changing, with sparks ready to fly at any moment.
"'Midlife metamorphosis' was a phrase that really resonated with me," says North. "They're all going through it individually, and they're going through it as friends, and some of them are going through it as couples, so we wanted to explore that."
The series is about the growing pains the group of friends experience as they reach middle age, navigating the single life and, in some cases, single parenthood, career turns, and more. “When you're in college, it's a different kind of mess than when you're 40 and have houses and have kids.
The clip that made its debut at the festival showed the men back around the card table playing poker, while updating each other on the latest developments in their lives.
“There is a lot of growth that happens with all of these men, as husbands, fathers, friends, and not just in their personal lives, but also in their careers. They are finding their purpose in life,” Lee said, breaking down the stories.
For Lance, that means exploring his post-soccer career and how he's handling his family after the death of his wife Mia (Monica Calhoun), "Is he going to find love again?" Lee remembers the writers arguing. “What are the new challenges you have to face in your faith? He's always been a faith-driven character, and he's always been challenged, so how are we going to challenge his faith in this series?
The big question about Quentin is that aforementioned marriage cliffhanger, but the series will also explore how the character deals with being born with money, but, Lee says, fans will also see Quentin realizing that he hasn't done anything with it "apart from of striking things." What are his responsibilities now as an adult, after 40?
Murch lives up to his reputation as the "supportive feminist husband type," serving as principal of the charter schools he founded with his wife Candace, while the titular "best man" Harper has transitioned from fledgling writer a successful author in recent years. franchise course. But what are his career aspirations after writing Lance's best-selling biography?
“What kind of things is he writing? And how does that affect his relationship with his wife, with his daughter, with his friends,” Lee says, mocking Harper's persistent desire to “look for more,” often at the risk of personal relationships. of the.
The short snippet was played only to those in the room because, as Howard's Quentin quips during the clip, "A brother's got to keep some mysteries."
“We wanted to make sure we gave the full breadth of what we planned to do in the series, so we settled on this preview,” says Lee. "It was difficult to choose the right footage, because there are some spoilers and some things we don't want to reveal."
Lee shared that they selected the card game scene as a preview for two reasons: first, showing the group of men playing cards has become one of the most enduring images of the franchise, aside from the musical moments (dancing the electric slide of Cameo's "Candy" in the finale of “The Best Man” and the boys doing their best New Edition impersonation in the “Can You Stand the Rain” dance sequence for “The Best Man Holiday”); second, the scene “gives you an idea of where each man is in the story and what might be going on,” he notes. It's a moment from the third episode of the series, but a relatively spoiler-free introduction to the story Lee and North intended to tell.
“It was probably the safest thing we could go for,” he says of trying to keep some suspense going during the promotional release. “This is the 20th anniversary of the film festival and it's the 23rd anniversary of 'The Best Man.' People have lived with these characters for a long time, so you just want to set a tone and make sure people find them engaging and fun. and relatable.”
And as part fan, part creative, those were the kind of iconic moments North loved to witness. “Coming in with that appreciation, I'm excited to see the guys at the card table,” he recalls. "Playing dozens and hurling insults is a love language in black culture, and that's one of the things that I think resonated so much with the 'Best Man' movies. The boys around the table, playing dozens, talking shit and joking with each other, it's a form of love.
But it was also important to North and Lee and the writers to create a version of that for the women in the group. “You will see that the women have a book club; women have their moments of connection like that,” she adds.
Another fact that is not a spoiler revealed in the clip is that "The Final Chapters" takes place after the pandemic, with the effects of the COVID-19 quarantine on all aspects of the lives of these friends referred to. in the program.
“It was important to acknowledge the world that we are in, in every way, so to acknowledge the things that have affected the lives of these characters: the pandemic revolution that has happened, the evolution that Black masculinity and femininity is undergoing in this moment". North explains. “Even though we are in a world right now where not everyone wears a mask everywhere they go, it affected our collective psyche.
Watch The Best Man: The Final Chapters 2022 Trailer
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