Will Smith has confirmed the title for Bad Boys 3 - aka. Bad Boys for Lif3 - as filming gets underway. The original Bad Boys hit theaters in 1995 and helped to put director Michael Bay's name on the map. It further served as a stepping stone for Smith, as he transitioned from his days starring on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to headlining mega-blockbusters like Independence Day and Men in Black in the late 1990s. Smith, Bay, and Smith's costar Martin Lawrence would go on to reunite for Bad Boys II eight years later, in turn evolving the franchise from modestly-budgeted action to nine-digit levels of "Bayhem" and spectacle.
There's been talk of Bad Boys 3 happening for the past ten years now, but for a long while there was seemingly little to no real progress being made. However, that changed in 2015, when Joe Carnahan (The Grey) entered talks to write and direct the film, and Sony set release dates for both Bad Boys 3 and Bad Boys 4 a few months after. Things slowed down again after that, as Carnahan stepped down, Sony dropped Bad Boys 4 from its schedule, and Bad Boys 3 was ultimately moved back to January 2020 last year. Casting got underway a few months later and things have been rolling along smoothly ever since.
Related: Will Smith Promises Genie Will Be Blue in Disney's Live-Action Aladdin
Smith has since announced the start of filming on Bad Boys 3 through his Instagram account (see the screenshot below). To commemorate the news, he posted a photo that confirms the title as being Bad Boys for Lif3, as opposed to the Bad Boys 4 Life title that was reported recently.
Lawrence and Smith are reprising their Bad Boys roles for the threequel, which pits their characters - Miami detectives Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) and Mike Lowery (Smith) - against a variety of new challenges, including a younger generation of modern detectives and specialized police officers. Vanessa Hudgens (The Princess Switch), Alexander Ludwig (Vikings), and Charles Melton (Riverdale) are playing members of a rival cop unit in the film, and Joe Pantoliano is reprising his Bad Boys I & II role as Burnett and Lowery's angry-as-ever Captain Conrad Howard. It's also been reported, but not confirmed, that Bad Boys for Lif3 finds Marcus and Mike with a price on their heads, after they kill the brother of an Albanian mercenary. However, Gabrielle Union will not be back as Marcus' sister Sydney, as she's currently playing the character in the TV show spinoff L.A.'s Finest instead.
With Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Black) replacing Bay at the helm and Carnahan reportedly doing a rewrite on a script by relative newcomer Chris Bremner, Bad Boys for Lif3 may be a departure from Bay's approach to the franchise. Bad Boys II was especially bombastic in Bay's now-recognizable style and failed to impress critics when it hit theaters, but has since become something of a favorite among Bay's more faithful followers. Still, a change in direction might be in order, seeing as Smith and Lawrence are sixteen years older than they were in Bad Boys II. This third installment should reflect the changes in both their screen personalities and the Hollywood landscape since then, for better or worse.
MORE: Every Movie Releasing in 2019
Source: Will Smith
