Wanda Sykes turned down The Roast of Kevin Hart before it even went public, and she has zero regrets. The comedian has now gone on record explaining exactly why she passed, and her reasoning is as sharp as her punchlines. What followed was a candid, unfiltered breakdown of everything she felt went wrong with the Netflix special.

While Sykes is known for pulling no punches on stage, her sharpest material this week came straight from a podcast couch.

Wanda Sykes did not hold back when asked about The Roast of Kevin Hart on Vulture's Good One podcast. Kevin Hart had personally reached out before the announcement, urging her to join, even framing it as a promotional opportunity for her upcoming special. Sykes politely declined, and Hart, to his credit, acknowledged it was not her style.

"Just lazy, lazy writing," Sykes said, summing up the roast.

She went further, adding, "I thought the same thing with the [2024 Tom] Brady roast too. Seems like the roasts, they're just recycled, you know, s*****, r*****, g** jokes. Like, come on."

The roast may have drawn critical fire, but Netflix's scoreboard tells a different story. The special clocked 13.5 million views in its debut week, landing the top spot in Netflix's English TV category for that period. That figure sits only marginally below the 2024 The Roast of Tom Brady, which drew 13.8 million views, so the platform has clear reason to be pleased. Audience reception, however, was far more divided, with an IMDb score of 6.1 reflecting complaints about pacing, a nearly three-hour runtime, and backlash over jokes targeting George Floyd, which Hart himself later acknowledged were not tasteful.

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While the roast numbers gave Netflix plenty to celebrate, Hart is already moving on to his next big project, and this time, the co-star is very much a surprise.

Kevin Hart is set to star opposite Henry Cavill in an untitled Netflix spy action comedy directed by McG. Based on a short story by Sean Lewis, the film follows two rival spies whose double lives begin colliding after their wives bond in a Lamaze class. The screenplay comes from Adam Nee, Aaron Nee, and Jonathan Tropper, with producers including Shawn Levy, Ryan Reynolds, and Hart's own Hartbeat banner behind the project.

Cavill joins the project fresh off Guy Ritchie's In the Grey, bringing an action-ready presence to what promises to be a high-energy, comedic premise. The combination of Cavill's physicality and Hart's comedic timing sets up an on-screen dynamic that practically writes its own trailer. Whether the film delivers on its considerable star power or not, one thing is certain: Wanda Sykes made her choice, Hart made his, and Hollywood is watching both moves closely.

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What are your thoughts on Wanda Sykes turning down the Kevin Hart roast? Let us know in the comments.