Martin Lawrence has claimed Will Smith's Oscars slap won't kill the development of Bad Boys 4 despite the reported postponement of the project in the aftermath of the incident.
In an interview with Ebony magazine, Lawrence expressed his confidence that Bad Boys 4 will move forward, as he dismissed speculation that the franchise's fourth installment would be cancelled as a result of Smith's onstage altercation with Chris Rock at the Oscars. "We got one more at least," he asserted, implying that Bad Boys for Life will get a follow-up.
The buddy cop action-comedy franchise launched in 1995 with the first Bad Boys movie, which saw Lawrence and Smith team up in their respective roles as Detective Sergeant Marcus Miles Burnett and Detective Sergeant Mike Lowrey. The movie proved to be a commercial success and spawned a sequel in 2003 with the release of Bad Boys II.
"It was big," Lawrence said of the launch of the franchise. "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."
25 years after the first Bad Boys proved that then-TV-stars Lawrence and Smith had big screen box office clout, the boys returned again for Bad Boys for Life. The long-gestating follow-up was well-received by fans and critics, with IGN's reviewer calling it an outrageous throwback threequel with great cast chemistry and plenty of all-out action.
The development of a fourth Bad Boys movie was confirmed in the same month that Bad Boys for Life arrived in theaters. The project was said to be making steady progress, with Smith having received 40 pages of the script. However, in April of this year, Bad Boys 4 reportedly came to a grinding halt to allow events to play out after the Oscars incident.
Smith made headlines in March when he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars after the comedian made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith's alopecia. Smith later apologized, calling his behavior "unacceptable and inexcusable." The actor also resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and received a 10-year ban from Academy events.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.