The Best Man: The Final Chapters premieres on Peacock in just a day’s time, and fans will finally have the answers to the questions that were left open in The Best Man Holiday nearly ten years ago.
ESSENCE caught up with franchise creator and director Malcolm D. Lee ahead of the limited series release to discuss his enduring story that effortlessly brings audiences back for more every decade.
“My intention with The Best Man was to create a classic,” Lee says. “To tell some evergreen stories about love, about friendship that aspirational Americans want. It’s great to know that was achieved with the first movie and that people wanted more.”
Indeed, it seems viewers can’t get enough of Harper, Jordan, Lance, Robin, Shelby, Quentin, Murch, and Candace. There is a quality about the interwoven stories of these characters that keep viewers glued to movie or television screens no matter how long of a gap there is between the story’s timeline.
“I think people really respond to these characters because it’s relatable. They know these characters, they are these characters. I think there’s a relatability that is also evergreen, that people really clamor for because it’s a reflection of themselves.”
With The Best Man premiering in 1999, The Best Man Holiday coming along in 2013, and now The Best Man: The Final Chapters premiering in December 2022, it lends fans to wonder if this is truly the end of the narrative for their favorite crew of college friends, or if they can expect more of the story in about a decade’s time. Will we see more of this group of lifelong comrades when their children have grown up and flown the coop and retirement is on the horizon?
According to Lee, fans should not hold their breath.
“You cannot expect it,” he says of a future The Best Man sequel. “It’s really the final chapters. That’s it. I don’t have any other stories to tell with these characters. I think we’ve run our course. I feel like these were and are great characters, and we can always revisit them. But, this is it.”
Be sure to catch the finale of this story when The Best Man: The Final Chapters beings streaming on Peacock on December 22.