Following Bad Boys for Life success, Sony developing Bad Boys 4 again

I’m guessing that the suits over at Sony must be feeling very conflicted right now. After nearly two decades of stop-starts and failed plans, they finally managed to release a third Bad Boys movie and not only was the consensus for Bad Boys for Life good, but it actually made a fair bit of money to become Sony’s biggest R-rated debut ever in the US. What’s conflicting about that? Well, the long-awaited action has been so well received that the studio has now begun development of a sequel… and they won’t be able to call it BAD BOYS 4 LIFE! Oh the horror!

Deadline reports that for Bad Boys 4 (or whatever it will be called), Sony has tapped Chris Bremner – who co-wrote Bad Boys for Life with Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan – to return as screenwriter. Stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence will naturally be back onboard, but there’s no word on whether the new cast members introduced in the most recent film will return as well. There’s also no official deal in place for co-directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah to come back, but with how solidly their work has been received by fans, you would have to think that Sony have already begun initial talks with the newcomer Belgian duo.

Way back in the dark times of 2015, Sony had actually planned to make both a third and fourth Bad Boys film back-to-back. Directors dropping out, script rewrites, and clashing actor schedules at the time caused them to scrap those plans though and eventually settle on just trying to get a single film made. That film, Bad Boys for Life, had been billed as one last ride for Smith and Lawrence’s Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett but as Craig’s review stated though, the movie’s ending still offered an opportunity to continue on the story. And with the film already sitting on $106 million globally (more than double what Sony predicted) and still needing to open in several key markets, it looks like that gamble paid off.

Last Updated: January 20, 2020