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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…
We thought Bad Boys for Life was going to be the final movie, that’s why we called it Bad Boys for Life. But anything’s possible.
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.