From “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter” to “Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare,” there have been countless movies that purport to be the last entry in their franchise but aren’t. The stars of “Jackass,” though, promise that won’t be the case with their emotional finale.
Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O both swear up and down that “Jackass: Best and Last” (now in theaters) truly is the end of their long-running stunt franchise after almost 26 years, and there will absolutely never be another movie in the series.
“I’ve had countless people ask me, ‘Oh, is it really the last one?’ There seems to be, every time, a real palpable hint of skepticism,” Steve-O tells USA TODAY. “Like, ‘Oh, you’re going to say it’s the last one, and then you’re going to do another one.’ And to all those people I’ve said, ‘No, no, no. This is absolutely the last one.'”
Knoxville is no less definitive about it. He tells USA TODAY, “There is a zero percent chance there will ever be another ‘Jackass.’ We’re done. Period.”
The decision to end the franchise stems largely from the fact that Knoxville, 55, is no longer able to do the kinds of big stunts he used to, especially after sustaining a major injury when he was hit by a bull on the making of “Jackass Forever” and suffered a concussion.
“My doctors told me I was done,” Knoxville says.
That being said, it’s hard to blame fans for being skeptical that “Best and Last” is the end, especially after many thought 2022’s “Jackass Forever” would be the last film. In 2021, Knoxville told GQ that “Forever” would be the end of his involvement in “Jackass,” though he later clarified that it was not necessarily the final film. “Someone wrote it was the last one, but we never said it was the last one,” he told Variety.
“Jackass: Best and Last” itself anticipates that fans will be skeptical that it really is the end of the franchise. In one scene, Steve-O roasts Knoxville by saying no one will believe him when he says it’s the last movie.
Speaking with USA TODAY, Knoxville says he originally thought the very first “Jackass” movie would be the end, too.
“After the first ‘Jackass,’ we said we’re done, and we weren’t,” he says. “So after every ensuing ‘Jackass,’ we just left it open.”
Now, they’re very much not, at least when it comes to another movie. Steve-O, though, suggests that “Jackass” could eventually return in another form: a documentary series about the history of the franchise.
“I’m so confident that there will never be another ‘Jackass’ film,” he says. “But at the same time, I believe it’s inevitable that there will be some sort of docuseries, which tells the story of it, gets more behind the scenes of it all. I think that docuseries is an inevitability, so if you wanted to call that more ‘Jackass,’ I suppose then maybe there will be more. But no more new movies.”
Knoxville confirms this is likely, noting, “I think there’s plans to do a ‘Jackass’ documentary not too far down the line.”
Most of the previous “Jackass” films spawned follow-up movies like “Jackass 2.5” and “Jackass 3.5,” which made use of material that didn’t make it into the final cut of the original film. Knoxville says there won’t be a “Jackass 5.5” after “Best and Last” because “we didn’t shoot enough” for one, although some footage did get cut from the finished movie.
“I did some things, some of them didn’t even make the movie,” he says. “I got a liver shot from a heavyweight boxer, which is incredible pain.”
Although “Jackass” may be over, Knoxville tells USA TODAY he expects he’ll continue working with his longtime costars on other projects. In fact, he’s already launched a brand new “Jackass” podcast, the first episode of which dropped on June 18.
“We plan on doing other things together, other films together, but just not ‘Jackass,'” Knoxville says. “It’s a really special group of friends, and we’ve been lucky enough to have so much love and support from the public, and there’s no reason to stop. Plus, the cast and crew have been together so long. We love hanging out together.”
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