Vivica A. Fox Dismisses Issa Rae’s ‘Set It Off’ Remake: ‘It’s a Classic, Leave It Alone’

Back in September, Variety revealed that Issa Rae was in the early development stages of re-imagining the 1996 cult classic Set It Off, starring Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox and Kimberly Elise.

But not everyone likes the idea of moving forward with a remake, even if Rae was attached to the project as a producer and possibly, star.

While speaking with ET Live to promote her upcoming film Christmas Matchmakers, Fox opened up about her thoughts on a Set It Off remake, and she bluntly explained why she’s not sold on it.

“It’s a classic, leave it alone,” Fox said. “There’s absolutely no reason to try to redo it. It’s been done, and we did it so well, that people are absolutely going to compare it to that and I think that’s her taking on a tremendous chore because that film has become a cult classic and some things are just better left.”

Fox’s opposition to a remake is her just trying to protect Rae from having to get out from under the immense shadow of the original film. Instead, Fox believes that Rae’s focus should be on creating a new franchise based on the same sort of concept that reflects present-day circumstances. 

“Like, create your own franchise,” she continued. “If you want to do a new film of girls robbing banks, create your own thing. You can make it up to date. We did that film in 1996. We are in 2019, going into 2020. So, create your own thing because people are absolutely going to compare it to it, and she’ll probably, if it’s not good, they’re going to slay her for it.”