Lena Waithe Claims She Is Developing A Movie With Issa Rae About Their “Friendship Breakup”
Written by b87fm on 10/27/2025
Will we be seated for this? Lena Waithe opened up about a new movie she is developing, and will star Issa Rae.
Waithe revealed that she is developing a film that will turn her “troubled friendship” with Issa Rae into a buddy comedy, and it will star both of them.
On a recent episode of Bustle’s One Nightstand podcast, Waithe described the movie as “funny and silly,” inspired by their “friendship breakup.”
She also revealed the she and Rae have been discussing plans for the movie over Zoom adding the characters in the film will be
“thinly-veiled versions” of themselves while also adding “The characters’ names [are] Lena and Issa, I’m not even being that imaginative about it.”
Waithe added, they “want to” play themselves in the film. “Issa’s going to be like, ‘Oh s***, well now we got to do it.”
This latest news comes on the heels of Waite wrapping up her Showtime drama, The Chi, which will finally end after eight seasons, putting it in the same category as other Showtime series Dexter, Homeland and Weeds as the network’s second-longest running series.
Whenever this film begins production, it will be the first project since the controversial 2019 film, Queen & Slim that starred Daniel Kaluuyah and Jodie Turner-Smith which sparked alot of dicussions about its plot revolving around a Black couple on the run after shooting a cop accidentally following a blind date.
Despite the fallout, speaking with Deadline, Waithe said she is still making films telling the website in an interview “As for what the future holds, I still plan on telling stories, continuing to build community, and making space for us all to be seen.”
For Rae, she is coming off 2023’s box office hit Barbie and the critically acclaimed American Fiction.
