Believe it or not, the first Bad Boys was released so long ago that Will Smith was still starring in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air when it hit theaters. The action flick quickly sent the actor to the very top of the Hollywood A-list though and became a huge hit with moviegoers, spawning a sequel just under a decade later. That arrived in 2003 and now, in 2020, we’ve finally got the third installment in the series.
Yes, Bad Boys for Life marks the return of Smith and Martin Lawrence to their roles for the first time in 17 years. And though it was stuck in development hell for a long while, after cycling through numerous writers and directors, Belgian filmmakers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah have finally brought it to the big screen.
Opening in theaters this weekend, reviews have been pretty favorable so far and with the threequel expected to do well at the box office, too, Sony has now gone ahead and announced Bad Boys 4. This news comes to us via The Hollywood Reporter, who say that a fourth installment is officially in development at the studio.
It’s still early days yet for the project, but scribe Chris Bremner will return for the film after penning Bad Boys For Life, while Smith and Lawrence are expected to be back, too. And best of all? THR says that “the plan is there for not to have the same time lag between” the second and third movie. Of course, they don’t yet know when it’ll be with us, but again, the gap shouldn’t be too long.
Bad Boys For Life shoots its way into theaters today, and audiences can rest easy knowing that even after the credits have rolled, there’s still more to come from the dynamic duo of Detective Mike Lowrey and Detective Marcus Burnett.