Recent years have been fairly kind to Martin Lawrence fans, as the actor returned to the Bad Boys franchise opposite Will Smith for both 2020’s Bad Boys for Life and 2024’s Bad Boys: Ride or Die, and took part in the Martin streaming reunion special on BET in the meantime. Now, it looks like interest in the ‘90s sitcom universe has only gained momentum, and a brand new project is in the works that will take a page out of Smith’s Bel-Air playbook by tackling the material with a far more dramatic approach.
That’s right, this won’t be quite the return to form that viewers may have been hoping for after the reunion sparked renewed interest in a revival, which Tisha Campbell addressed somewhat positively back in 2022. But rather than another multi-camera project or even a single camera comedy without a studio audience, Lawrence’s production shingle RunTelDat is teaming with WonderHill Studios for an hour-long origin story that’s currently being called Young Martin.
According to Deadline, the new story will follow Martin Payne during his early years as a charming and presumably mouthy teenager making the transition into adulthood. But rather than going a similar route as Everybody Hates Chris by making it a period comedy, Young Martin won’t be aiming to match up with the exact timeline of the ‘90s sitcom, and will be set in present-day Detroit.
This version of Martin will be a positive-minded, boisterous and empathetic character who loves making his friends and family members laugh. All manner of personal relationships will be explored, with the teen toeing the emotionally fraught line between being a young adult and that next step of the ladder. Understandably, Martin’s large personality and attitude get him into some stressful and hindering situations as he strives for success.
It’s not entirely clear if Martin will be aiming for a radio host career in the new show to match up with the character’s profession in the sitcom. As well, it’s unclear how many of the already established characters will be reimagined for this new project, and which ones we can expect to see. (I’m personally holding out for Tisha Campbell to join the show as Gina’s mom or something winky-winky along those lines.)
To that end, Martin Lawrence will serve as an executive producer on Young Martin, but it’s unknown whether or not he will have more creative input as the project comes together. It’s presumed he won’t be back in a starring capacity, but we’re still at the “anything is possible” stage.
It’s kind of wild how similar the stories have been for Will Smith’s Fresh Prince and Lawrence’s Martin. For instance, both sitcoms’ male leads feuded with female co-stars (Smith with Janet Hubert and Lawrence with Tisha Campbell), and both buried the respective hatchets in connection with high-profile streaming reunion specials. The Fresh Prince reunion aired on Max back in 2020, while Martin’s was a BET+ exclusive in 2022.
And the Young Martin news comes as Bel-Air is gearing up for its Season 3 premiere in August, proving that even though many fans questioned the existence of a dramatized version of Carlton and the rest of the Banks family, enough of them are tuning in to convince Peacock to keep the show going. I’m curious to learn whether this new project came from conversations Lawrence and Smith had while filming the fourth Bad Boys film, or if it’s something that the stand-up comedian already had in mind for the Fox hit. We know Smith heard Fresh Prince reboot ideas for years before Morgan Cooper’s proof-of-concept video sold the actor on a dramatic spin.
Where could Young Martin end up, even? No potential small screen homes were mentioned in the report, so it’s unclear whether Fox would throw down with Martin Lawrence again, or if it will, like Bel-Air, one day be available to stream with a Peacock subscription. Whichever way it goes, let’s just hope the producers cast someone with the best “Whaazzzuupp?!?” imaginable.
