It has been 23 years since followers had been launched to Malcolm D. Lee’s “Black Pack” in his 1999 debut movie, “The Greatest Man.” Now, the forged — together with Taye Diggs (Harper), Morris Chestnut (Lance), Nia Lengthy (Jordan), Sanaa Lathan (Robin), Melissa De Sousa (Shelby), Terrence Howard (Quentin), and Regina Corridor (Candace) — are bidding farewell to their cult-classic franchise with Peacock’s “The Greatest Man: The Last Chapters,” an eight-part restricted collection that follows the school pal group of their older years as they navigate their evolving relationships and previous grievances.
“It is a chance to embrace them, see a mirrored image of themselves, and have some nice nostalgia flowing.”
The backdrop of the present is, in fact, Harper’s notorious novel “Unfinished Enterprise,” which will get tailored right into a film within the collection, offering the proper full-circle second to shut the e book on “The Greatest Man.” “‘Unfinished Enterprise’ was a key a part of the ‘Greatest Man’ movie. It felt proper [to include] some 20-something years later if we’re revisiting and bringing this group and tales ahead for a collection,” coshowrunner Dayna Lynne North tells POPSUGAR. “It is a technique to join the previous to the current as a result of, for me, this isn’t a reboot, it is a ‘The place are they now?’ form of factor. So ‘Unfinished Enterprise’ and Harper, nonetheless a supply of mess. The extra issues change, the extra they keep the identical.”
Followers have been ready for Peacock’s extremely anticipated collection ever because it was first introduced in February 2021. Lee, the creator of the Greatest Man franchise, notes that the ultimate installment was initially imagined to be a 3rd and fourth movie however thought a restricted collection was significantly better fitted to what audiences have been “clamoring” for.
“They actually really feel an affinity to them, so I really like that individuals nonetheless wish to see them and I nonetheless have one thing to say about these characters,” Lee says. “That is uncommon. I feel [viewers] are going to understand this time, particularly across the holidays, to spend time with outdated associates that they met again in 1999. It is a chance to embrace them, see a mirrored image of themselves, and have some nice nostalgia flowing.”
Picture Supply: Everett Assortment
The “Greatest Man” forged credit score Lee’s genius writing as the rationale their franchise has lasted so lengthy. “It began on the web page,” De Sousa remarks. “He wrote an ideal script for the primary film, he wrote nice characters, and he picked the correct actors. It is actually a kind of issues which you could’t clarify. It was magic. We would not have recognized from day one which it could’ve lasted all of those years.”
Corridor provides, “I feel individuals actually acquired invested in these characters and so they’ve grown up with us, so that they’ve watched us undergo issues that they’ve gone via. The advantage of the franchise is that it is had sufficient time between every reincarnation for individuals to expertise them at completely different phases of their lives.”
“We would not have recognized from day one which it could’ve lasted all of those years.”
The fervor of “The Greatest Man” has largely remained in followers’ hearts as a result of each member of the forged has been booked and busy since 1999. “One of many issues which have helped maintain the curiosity is once you have a look at the forged from the very first ‘Greatest Man,’ we have all continued to go on and achieve this many different issues,” Chestnut explains. “Our fan bases from the opposite issues have continued to develop, so after we got here collectively for the second [movie], it introduced all of the followers again. They’ve seen all of the movies all through the years, so not solely have they adopted us within the motion pictures, they’ve adopted our careers on completely different paths, [too].”
All these years later, the forged discover consolation in understanding their franchise is iconic sufficient to final one other 20-plus years for the following technology to get pleasure from. Trying again at “The Greatest Man,” a few of them nonetheless chuckle at their favourite scenes from the movie. “My favourite one is my first Shelby scene the place you are launched to the character,” De Sousa shares. “As a result of I bear in mind on the premiere, that scene, the viewers burst into applause after my first scene: ‘I am watching you, Harper.’ I can not ever repeat that, I do not understand how that occurred — a few of it was improv on my half — but it surely’s one among my favourite moments of my profession.”
In the meantime, Chestnut, Lengthy, and Corridor notice that the latter could have had the very best scene of all of them. “We talked concerning the stripper scene with Candace,” Chestnut quips with fun, whereas Lengthy provides, “That was a protracted night time. I used to be so happy with Regina. I at all times consider her and the way this was one among her first roles and he or she got here in and simply owned that strip scene and I used to be in awe of her like, ‘Holy sh*t. I do not know if I may try this.'”
There are loads extra beloved scenes the Greatest Man franchise has gifted us through the years — from all the fellows lip-syncing New Version’s “Can You Stand the Rain?” in “The Greatest Man Vacation” and Lance’s easy and horny entrance within the first film to Jordan’s iconic “I do not wish to hear about no godd*mn peas” line (and her slap for Harper heard all over the world). Now, the hope is that “The Greatest Man: The Last Chapters,” now streaming on Peacock, will supply followers extra heat reminiscences.
Forward, take a nostalgic look again at “The Greatest Man” forged’s careers and the place they’re at the moment.
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