Will Smith and Martin Lawrence Returning for 'Bad Boys 4'

01/31/2023 04:28 pm EST

Bad Boys 4 is officially happening. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence revealed on Tuesday that they're coming back together for a fourth Bad Boys movie, which is in early pre-production at Sony Pictures, according to Deadline. Also returning are directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah who were in charge of Bad Boys for Life, and Chris Bremner wrote the script. 

Smith and Lawrence shared the news on their Instagram pages, and the videos show Smith heading to Lawrence's house to announce to the world that Bad Boys 4 is happening. The name of the movie might be an issue, though, since they wanted to title it Bad Boys for Life which is the name of the third film. But Smith and Lawrence both said, "IT'S ABOUT THAT TIME!" meaning they are ready to get back to work.

Bad Boys for Life was released on Jan. 17, 2020, and made $426.5 million at the worldwide box office. The film was released nearly 17 after Bad Boys II hit theatres, and that movie made $273.3 million worldwide. Bad Boys was released in 1995 and made $141.4 million on a $19 million budget. The Bad Boys movies focus on the characters Marcus Miles Burnett (Lawrence) and Micahel Eugene Lowrey (Smith) two Miami detectives who take down criminals in the area. 

Bad Boys 4 was in development since Jan. 2020 but has been pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards. When Lawrence spoke to Ebony magazine in July last year, he said the slap won't lead to the cancelation of the new Bad Boys movie. 

"We got one more at least," Lawrence said. The Bad Boys franchise has been a big success, but Lawrence knows that he and Smith were in a risky situation because it was rare to have two Black leads in an action film at that time. "It was big," he added. "For us to come together and prove that we can deliver, and we can pull people into the box office—that two Black stars, two sitcom stars, could make money at the box office [was huge]." Lawrence is an executive producer for the fourth Bad Boys film while Smith is a producer with Jerry Bruckheimer. 

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