'Bad Boys 4' Production Unaffected by Oscar Slapgate, Martin Lawrence confirms

Bad Boys has been an entertaining and hilarious series of films starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. However, with the altercation at the Oscars, fans were unsure whether Sony would pull the plug on the fourth installment of the Bad Boys series, Variety reported. There is good news though!

In case you decided to shield yourself from the Oscar drama, here’s a TLDR, Chris Rock made a semi-offensive joke on Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia and baldness which Smith found super offensive. In response to this, Will Smith walked up on stage towards Rock and slapped him and walked back to his seat before saying, "Keep my wife's name out of your f***ing mouth." Cue the onslaught of headlines and viral videos. Taking a step back, many projects dropped Will Smith in response and Apple is expected to delay a slavery drama called Emancipation starring Smith to come out in 2023. Additionally, the Academy conducted disciplinary hearings and banned the King Richard star for 10 years.

However, Martin Lawrence seems confident that the fourth installment of Bad Boys is ready to come. The comedian said, “We got one more at least,” implying the future of the action franchise could extend beyond the next installment. In January of 2020, as Bad Boys for Life was making its rank at the box office, Sony confirmed a fourth installment written by screenwriter Chris Bremner and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. 

Sony Chairperson, Thomas Rothman, even made a comment to Deadline when asked whether production has been put on pause because of ‘The Slap.’ “No. That was inaccurate. That movie’s been in development and still is. There weren’t any brakes to pump because the car wasn’t moving.” He elaborated, vouching for Smith, “I don’t think it’s really my place to comment, except to say that I’ve known Will Smith for many years, and I know him to be a good person. That was an example of a very good person having a very bad moment, in front of the world. I believe his apology and regret is genuine, and I believe in forgiveness and redemption.”

The stories follow Mike (Will Smith) and Marcus (Martin Lawrence) who are detectives in the Miami police department as they have to take up interesting methods to solve the crimes they are assigned. Bad Boys for Life was one of the films to release before the pandemic led to a worldwide shutdown. Lawrence talked about the impact of this film in the 90s saying, “It was big,” he says, “For us to come together and prove that we can deliver, and we can pull people into the box office—that two Black stars, two sitcom stars, could make money at the box office [was huge]. I didn’t go to college, so I felt TV was my college years. I felt with movies, I had graduated; it was just different.”

For all the Bad Boys fans, it seems unlikely now that Sony will scrap the film and the sequel is officially coming.