Now That Bad Boys 4 Is On The Way Co-Director Explains Why The Heck The Third Movie Was Called ‘For Life’
It's good to have this cleared up.
After decades on the shelf, the Bad Boys franchise returned in a big way when Bad Boys for Life came out in 2020. The movie was the highest-grossing film of the year and, while that was a pandemic-assisted accomplishment, it was a significant enough hit for a fourth movie to be greenlit. Ride or Die's release date is almost here and, while fans are certainly excited, it still feels like the new movie just has the wrong title, because the last one used it. Now, the co-director has provided an explanation for that.
The decision to title the third movie For Life seemed bizarre even at the time because calling a fourth installment Bad Boys 4 Life seemed so obvious to apparently everybody but the filmmakers. However, co-director Adil El Arbi tells our sister site, GamesRadar, that there's a good reason why he, fellow director Bilall Fallah and their collaborators made that decision. While talking about the chances of a fifth movie, he explained…
If this is true, that there was a real belief that the third movie would be the last one, then the title does make sense. Bad Boys for Life is a good title to end a franchise with. Maybe it was a surprise to see the movie become such a box office hit. Though that led to the unfortunate situation of having to come up with a new title for the fourth movie when even Will Smith and Martin Lawrence agreed that the franchise used the wrong title for the last movie.
The problem with this idea is that as far back as 2015, when Bad Boys 3 was officially announced, the fourth film was also announced. The plan was to do at least two more movies. It would be a few more years before the next movie actually happened, so maybe the decision to make that fourth flick had been unconfirmed in the interim. But then the For Life ending certainly left the door open for a sequel. At some point, the decision to at least consider another movie had clearly been made.
The Ride or Die trailer has promised fans another exciting adventure. 4 Life may have been the best possible title for this latest romp starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith, but Ride or Die certainly isn’t a bad second choice. It will work as a “final” title if this is in fact the last movie in the series. However, if the new film ends up doing as well as the last one at the box office then they may need to have to come up with another new title and, if so, their options will be quite limited.
Fans can see Bad Boys: Ride or Die in theaters when it opens on June 7 as part of the 2024 movie schedule. In the meantime, you can check out the first three films using a Hulu subscription.
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CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis. Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.