It has been 23 years since Malcolm D. Lee first introduced audiences to characters like Harper Stewart, Lance Sullivan, Julian “Murch” Murchison, and Quentin Spivey in the landmark 1999 romantic dramedy, The Best Man, and it has been nearly a decade since we last saw them and others in 2013’s The Best Man Holiday. Those characters, their stories, and the franchise as a whole will be coming back for one final release in December 2022 with the Peacock Premium limited series, The Best Man: The Final Chapters.
The franchise, with its laughs, tears, and incredibly powerful moments will soon draw to a conclusion, but we still have time to prepare ourselves for the final chapter. Below, we will break down everything we know about The Best Man: The Final Chapters, including its premiere date, info on its cast, and everything you you’d care to know.
The Best Man: The Final Chapters Premieres December 22nd On Peacock
A little more than a week before the 2022 TV schedule draws to a conclusion, The Best Man: The Final Chapters will be there to send it off. That is because the highly anticipated limited series is set to premiere December 22nd on Peacock Premium. The streaming service revealed the premiere date for the event over the summer, which gave fans of the movies a few months to refresh their memories while those not familiar with the franchise had to time to see what all the fuss is about.
The Original Cast From The Best Man Is Returning For The Peacock Limited Series
When The Best Man: The Final Chapters debuts on Peacock in December, it will see the original cast from the first two movies back in action after all these years. When the project was first announced in early 2021, Deadline reported that Morris Chestnut, Melissa De Sousa, Taye Diggs, Regina Hall, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Nia Long, and Harold Perrineau were all going to be a part of the limited series and that they all signed massive deals to reprise the characters they first brought to life more than two decades ago.
The only major member of The Best Man cast not coming back for the upcoming limited series is Monica Calhoun, whose character, Mia Morgan, passed away in The Best Man Holiday.
The Limited Series Will Also See New Additions To The Franchise
On top of all the franchise regulars who will be returning for The Best Man: The Final Chapters, the Peacock series will also feature some new additions when it premieres later this year. In April 2022, more than a year after the first cast announcement, Deadline revealed that multiple actors had been added in recurring roles, with Nicole Ari Parker (And Just Like That...), Ron Canada (The Orville), and Brandon Victor Dixon (Jesus Christ Superstar Live!) being at the top of the list.
Other new additions to the cast include Michael Genet (Dr. Death), Yvonne Pearson (Dynasty), Aaron Serotsky (Dopesick), Terrence Terrell (B Positive), Tobias Truvillion (New Amsterdam), and Eric Scott Ways (City on a Hill).
The Best Man: The Final Chapters Will Pick Up After The Best Man Holiday’s Cliffhanger Ending
When The Best Man: The Final Chapters premieres in December, it will pick up after the big cliffhanger from the successful The Best Man Holiday where Quentin Spivey (Terrence Howard) revealed that he was getting married, though he never revealed the identity of the bride. When speaking with Variety in August 2022, franchise creator Malcolm D. Lee admitted that he could have ended things with the 2013 sequel, but felt he needed to address the big stinger at the end of the movie:
By the way, we could have ended it with Best Man Holiday, but we ended with a cliffhanger, and I felt like ‘Hey, let’s at least answer the question of ‘Is Quentin getting married?’
The limited series will also see the core cast of characters deal with various midlife crises, whether that be exploring the complexities of middle age, being single, or being single with children.
Malcolm D. Lee Produced The Best Man: The Final Chapters With Insecure’s Dayna Lynne North
The Best Man and The Best Man Holiday were both written and directed by Malcolm D. Lee, but this time around, the filmmaker had some help when it came to crafting the story and penning the script for The Best Man: The Final Chapters. Back in February 2021, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Dayna Lynne North, who worked on shows’ like Issa Rae’s Insecure, had come aboard the upcoming Peacock show.
Throughout her career, North has also worked on series like Lincoln Heights, One of Us is Lying, Any Day Now, Switched at Birth, and Single Ladies, and even wrote some of the best Veronica Mars episodes during the show’s original run in the early 2000s.
Malcolm D. Lee Has Described The Best Man: The Final Chapters As A ‘Fitting Way To Tie Up The Legacies’ Of The Characters
Malcolm D. Lee has worked within the Best Man universe off and on for more than 20 years now, and during that time has watched his characters go from young 20-somethings trying to find their place in society to a group of middle-aged men and women trying to understand the ever-evolving world. After all the ups and downs and life lessons the core cast has experienced over the years, the filmmaker told EW that The Best Man: The Final Chapters was a “fitting way” to tie everything up for them all:
This Is a fitting way to tie up the legacy of these characters. I don’t have any more stories to tell. Maybe I will in 20 more years, but the way I feel right now, I’ve gone as far as I can with these characters.
This isn’t to say Lee won't change his mind years down the road and offer up an epilogue for the characters, but for now this is the end.
The Best Man: The Final Chapters Will Play Out Over Eight One-Hour Episodes
When The Best Man: The Final Chapters premieres in late December, it will kick off a story that will take place over eight one-hour episodes, which is twice the length of the first two movies combined. When speaking with Variety in August 2022, Malcolm D. Lee explained that he was prepared to finish out the franchise with two more films, but ultimately decided to go the limited series route when streaming became a viable option. When discussing the transition, he talked about the format as being “more expansive.”
There is still some time before The Best Man: The Final Chapters premieres December 22nd, but it’s not all bad news, as this gives you time to catch up with the rest of the best shows on Peacock while you wait.
