‘Bad Boys 3’ Just Got Real, Will Smith And Martin Lawrence Confirm

Michael Bay directed Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in the 1995 movie Bad Boys, which fared extremely well at the box office. Bay didn’t follow the movie up until 2003, likely due to the careers of all three exploding following the release of the original.

Since Bad Boys 2, approximately 15 years have passed and the likelihood of a sequel was looking bleak, even to Smith and Lawrence. Will Smith recently posted a video of himself beating his head against a wall as a comparison for his experience in trying to get a third Bad Boys movie made. According to Deadline, that wall has officially cracked.

Both Will Smith and Martin Lawrence took to their respective social media accounts to announce the news to fans across the world. Bad Boys 3 is happening. Both actors seem extremely excited, as they’ve both reportedly been working tirelessly to ensure the movie happens. While many were skeptical, it appears Smith and Lawrence have emerged victorious.

So far, there has been no word on whether or not Michael Bay will be involved with the third film, in any capacity. Writers Joe Carnahan and Chris Brenner are confirmed to have penned the script for Bad Boys 3. Tentatively, the movie appears slated for release in 2020, but no official date has been given. At one point the movie was rumored to have been called Bad Boys For Life, but so far that title has not been confirmed as the name of the franchise’s third entry.

The original 1995 movie, Bad Boys, was a buddy-cop story that crossed pulse-pounding action with knee-slapping comedy. Though R-rated, Bad Boys still drew impressive numbers and helped catapult Will Smith from being known solely for his role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, to being a movie icon and one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood.

Perhaps some of the delays for Bad Boys 3 were caused by the reception to Bad Boys 2. The movie scored poorly with critics, currently sitting at a 23 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert panned the film, giving it one out of a possible four stars.

Commercially the movie didn’t perform as well as movie executives hope. It was made on a reported budget of $130 million and only recouped $138 million at the U.S. box office. It did gross another $134 million worldwide, making the film profitable, but perhaps not profitable enough for a sequel to be a priority.

Despite that adversity, Martin Lawrence and Will Smith are primed to return to theaters once more, in Bad Boys 3.