Ice Cube and Nia Long Are Coming Back to the ‘Are We There Yet?’ Franchise, and Nick Is About to Become a Grandfather
Few family comedy franchises from the mid-2000s carry as much warmth and nostalgia as the ‘Are We There Yet?’ series. The films introduced audiences to a lovable, stumbling everyman navigating the chaos of instant parenthood, and they struck a chord that has clearly outlasted the decade that birthed them. Nearly two decades after the first road trip, that world is quietly getting a whole new chapter.
Ice Cube and Nia Long are reuniting for a third film in the beloved comedy franchise, with the project currently in early development after being acquired by Skydance Sports. The new installment will continue the story of Nick and Suzanne years after audiences first met them, picking up threads that fans of the series have quietly wondered about for years.
As reported exclusively by Deadline and confirmed across multiple outlets, the threequel is titled ‘Are They Gone Yet?’ and it comes with a premise that perfectly mirrors where the franchise’s original audience now finds themselves in real life. The new film is being written by Chris Hazzard and Mike Fontana and shifts its focus to Nick’s latest challenge of becoming a grandfather. It is a natural and surprisingly poetic evolution for a character whose entire arc was built around learning to love someone else’s children.
The franchise’s commercial foundation makes the return feel less like a gamble and more like a calculated homecoming. The original ‘Are We There Yet?’ opened at number one at the domestic box office and went on to gross over $97 million worldwide against a production budget of just $20 to $32 million. The 2007 sequel ‘Are We Done Yet?’ added another $58 million to the total, bringing the two-film theatrical haul to more than $156 million worldwide. Those are not numbers studios forget, and Skydance clearly sees the franchise as having plenty left in the tank.
Ice Cube addressed the announcement with genuine enthusiasm, and his statement captures exactly why the concept works. In a statement to Deadline, Ice Cube said the franchise built something special, noting that audiences grew up with Nick Persons and that “now Nick’s got grandkids,” adding that partnering with Skydance to bring the story to a new generation is exactly the kind of move CubeVision was built for.
Deadline’s reporting does not specify whether Aleisha Allen and Philip Daniel Bolden will reprise their roles as Suzanne’s kids Lindsey and Kevin, though the grandfather premise strongly hints that at least one of them will factor into the story in a meaningful way. The film is being produced by Broken Road and CubeVision, with Ice Cube, Todd Garner, and Jeff Kwatinetz attached as producers, and Ben Hurwitz and Lauren Gennawey serving as executive producers.
The franchise was previously extended into television with a sitcom spinoff that aired on TBS from 2010 to 2013, starring Terry Crews and running for 100 episodes across four seasons, proving that Nick and Suzanne’s world had always held enough life to expand beyond the movies. Now, with the original stars back and a genuinely fresh premise in place, ‘Are They Gone Yet?’ has the ingredients to remind a whole generation why they fell for this franchise in the first place. Whether you watched ‘Are We There Yet?’ in theaters as a kid or alongside your own children, the idea of Nick Persons becoming a grandfather is bound to hit differently, and we want to hear how you feel about it.
