True to the Game: Quadir’s Redemption, the fourth installment in the crime-thriller franchise, premieres December 15 exclusively on Paramount+, The Hollywood Reporter reports. The first three films in the series will also become available on Paramount+ starting December 1.
The new film continues the story of Gena, played by Erica Peeples, and Quadir, played by Columbus Short, as they attempt to build a life together despite his complicated ties to the drug world. Quadir’s Redemption brings their journey full circle, revisiting earlier defining moments while introducing a present-day question about Gena’s baby that threatens to upend their relationship and challenge what they thought they knew about each other. The full original cast returns, including Vivica A. Fox as Shoog, Iyana Halley as Bria, Starletta Dupois as Gah-Git, Andra Fuller as Jerrell, Kris D. Lofton as Terrell, and Lisa Renee Pitts as Viola Richards.
Salvatore Sclafani directs from a script by Manny Halley, who also executive produces through his Imani Media Group. Speaking to SideWalks ahead of the third film’s release, Short described what initially drew him to the role, citing the love story at the franchise’s core and the loyalty between Quadir and Shoog as central to what “being true to the game” actually means, even as romantic entanglement complicates that code.
The franchise traces back to Teri Woods’s bestselling 1998 novel True to the Game, a foundational work in the street lit genre that helped popularize urban crime fiction centered on Black protagonists navigating love, loyalty, and survival within the drug trade. Woods self-published the novel before it found mainstream success, and it eventually became one of the genre’s most recognized titles. The film adaptation launched in 2017 under Halley’s Imani Media Group, followed by Game 2: Gena’s Story in 2020 and True to the Game 3 in 2021, building a consistent audience across nearly a decade.
With the entire trilogy landing on Paramount+ just two weeks before the new film’s premiere, the streamer appears to be deliberately building a complete-franchise viewing window, giving newcomers a clear runway to catch up on nearly a decade of story before Quadir’s Redemption closes it out.