The Bad Boys really are for life (or until their backs give out)

Some action stars have been forced to pass the torch. Tom Hardy took over for Mad Max’s Mel Gibson, and Paul Mescal is the new face of Gladiator, succeeding Russell Crowe. But there are plenty of big movie stars who aren’t ready to hand over the keys. Harrison Ford said Indiana Jones dies with him, and his latest outing inspired Tom Cruise to say he hopes to keep doing impossible missions until he’s 80. So too say the Bad Boys, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, who do indeed hope the franchise is for life.

Smith was somewhat legacy-minded on the red carpet for the latest installment, Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, when speaking with The Hollywood Reporter. “You know, we might have one more in us before we hand it off, but we got a lotta young seeds in there,” he observed of their cast. However, Lawrence joked, “The back ain’t went out quite yet, so before we do that, we ain’t gonna pass it off just yet.”

Of course, there was a time when a fourth Bad Boys seemed unlikely. Despite being the last true blockbuster before the pandemic, Smith’s stock in Hollywood infamously plummeted after slapping Chris Rock on stage at the 2022 Academy Awards. Plenty of people in the entertainment industry still view the star with some reproach after that shocking event, but Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra told THR there was no hesitation to make another entry to the franchise. “We were anxious to get this one done because the fan base for Bad Boys and for Will and Martin is just enormous, and we wanted to make sure we got this done,” he said.

Similarly, Lawrence has said basically since The Slap first happened that it wouldn’t impede Bad Boys 4. Speaking with Deadline at the premiere, he reiterated the camaraderie with his co-star: “It’s all love and respect and professionalism, and just having a lot of fun with this guy and watching him work, and come up with the stuff. He was giving me lines in the movie. It was a lot of fun. He was directing me!”

Smith certainly made the most of the opportunity to open a big summer blockbuster. He rolled in to the premiere on an open top bus performing his hit track “Miami” and introduced Lawrence to the crowd as his “ride or die.” “This franchise, you know, for me, this was really the start of both of our movie careers. And to be here 30 years later, neither of us ever expected that,” Smith said to Deadline. “And that kind of ride or die is not easy to come by.”