Martin Lawrence has confirmed that despite Will Smith’s ‘slap incident’ at the Oscars, Bad Boys 4 is still going ahead.
Earlier this year during the annual Academy Awards ceremony Will Smith slapped Chris Rock; an incident that echoed all around the world.
Ever since, multiple celebrities – like Ricky Gervais – have given their two cents on the matter and Smith has essentially been blacklisted from Hollywood; he’s no longer allowed to attend future Academy Awards ceremonies and multiple projects he was working on have been ‘put on pause’.
But there’s one celebrity who’s now come out in support of Smith and still wants to make films with him. And that celeb is actor Martin Lawrence, who has worked with Smith multiple times in the past on Bad Boys, Bad Boys II and Bad Boys for Life.
In a recent interview with Ebony, Lawrence was asked whether the fourth Bad Boys film – which was confirmed to be in development back in 2020 before the slap – was still going ahead. To which Lawrence responded,
“We got one more, at least!”
Martin Lawrence
Clearly, Lawrence is proud of the Bad Boys franchise that he and Smith built together as the actor also spoke about the first film’s success.
“It was big. 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, [it was huge].”
Martin Lawrence
What’s still unclear is when Bad Boys 4 will start filming, although it must be soon as it’s currently slated for release next year in 2023.
It’ll also be interesting to see whether Bad Boys 4 is successful at the box office. The last instalment in the franchise, Bad Boys for Life made over US$400 million globally; which is especially impressive considering it was released at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. But many may not go and see Bad Boys 4 because they don’t want to support Smith after the slap…
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