When Bad Boys was released in 1995 it was a huge hit, making a hell of a lot of money from a relatively small budget. It took eight years for the second one to be released - far longer than sequels take to get made nowadays - but 2003's Bad Boys II landed with seven times the budget and brought even more fans to the table.
From a $149 million combined budget they made a total of $622.1 million, which isn't too shabby. Despite this, over a decade passed with no third entry - despite the fact that the cast and fanbase were ready for it. The third movie is now filming, but they went through a dodgy production schedule to get there.
While co-stars Martin Lawrence and Will Smith seemed game for it the entire time, it was hard to get the studio moving. "I'm there, I'm ready right now," Lawrence said at the time. "If they wanted to do it, I'm ready, but I don't have control of that. That's the studio decision."
Smith also wanted to return, but had so much on his plate apparently that there were too many scheduling conflicts for them to make it work. But, finally, in October last year, the reports came in that Smith had made it work, and they were all signed on to the new movie. Then, on October 31, Lawrence officially confirmed that they were on board for the threequel.
On top of this, Bad Boys III - likely to be known as Bad Boys For Life - is getting Joe Pantoliano back to reprise his role as Captain Howard. Alongside him will be newcomers to the series Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, Jacob Scipi and Paola Nuñez.
But before they made it to set, Smith and Lawrence got together to watch the movies again as part of their preparation.
They were due to start filming on January 14, and now that it's all started up, Will Smith gave us our first glimpse of him taking on the role of Mike Lowrey once more.
In a video posted to a Will and Jaden Smith fan account on Instagram, we can see a little screen test taking place, with Smith geared up to take on the character once again:
According to the Hashtag Show, the new film's synopsis will see the two leads reuniting in more ways than one:
"The film will see Lawrence’s character Marcus Burnett working as a private eye after a falling out with Smith’s Mike Lowery, who is going through a midlife crisis as a bachelor who finally wants to mature, all while dealing with a new a young and cocky partner who is loyal to Lowery but that loyalty is not reciprocated, and finds bond with Burnett when he returns to the fray.
"Lowery and Burnett are brought together again when a lean, mean, skilled, Albanian mercenary with a vendetta puts a death order on Lowery and Burnett for the death of his brother. Now the two must work together once again to bring him down."
Bad Boys III is set to be released in just over a year, on January 17, 2020.
