Clifton Powell Says 'Friday 4' Can Honor John Witherspoon, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister

Clifton Powell says 'Friday 4' absolutely needs to get off the ground as an homage to the franchise's late stars John Witherspoon and Tommy "Tiny" Lister.

We got Clifton -- who played Pinky in "Next Friday" and "Friday After Next" -- at LAX and talked about the chances of another sequel happening following Pops' death in 2019 and Deebo's sudden passing earlier this month.

Clifton says there's no question about it ... it's gotta happen. In fact, he essentially says it would be the perfect way to pay tribute to the iconic characters both men created, and generations of fans grew to love.

He's even got some ideas for Ice Cube on how to pull it off.

Now, a few years ago Cube said a 4th flick was in the works ... and he was reportedly writing the script -- but things stalled, and it's been on hold since then.

Either way, it sure seems like Clifton's mind's in overdrive cause his ideas are so spot on ... Cube might want to think about giving him producer's credit.