Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have joined forces to announce plans for the fourth installment in the Bad Boys series.
Sony Pictures confirmed to Variety that Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are both on board to direct Bad Boys 4. The duo also directed 2020’s Bad Boys For Life, which served as one of the final blockbusters at the box office before the pandemic swept the globe
Will Smith made the announcement official with a hyped post to social media on Tuesday morning (January 31) declaring “It’s about that time” as he pulled up to his co-star’s house with “Shake Ya Tailfeather” from the Bad Boys II soundtrack booming through his car’s speakers.
“It’s about that time. It’s official. Bad Boys for life,” Smith emphatically stated before they both realized 2020’s installment already used that title for the movie. “We shouldn’t have called it that though. The three was the ‘E’ but this is Bad Boys 4.
In addition to the fans, plenty of Will and Martin’s celebrity friends filled the comment section, with excitement coming from the likes of Timbaland, DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ Khaled and more.
Bad Boys For Life raked in $426.5 million at the worldwide box office 25 years after 1995’s Bad Boys original collected $141 million globally.
Will Smith’s Hollywood aspirations were in limbo with his acting career temporarily paused following his notorious slapping of Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards.
Although, Martin Lawrence confirmed over the summer in an interview with Ebony that he and Will were still on the hook for one more Bad Boys film
We got one more at least,” Lawrence said in July. “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].”