The buddy cop action sequel, Bad Boys 4, will recast one of its long-standing characters, it has been revealed. According to Variety, Empire star Tasha Smith will star as Martin Lawrence’s devoted wife Theresa in the follow-up, taking over from Theresa Randle who has portrayed the character ever since the franchise began back in 1995.
Tasha Smith, who is best known for roles in the likes Empire, The Corner, Power, and First Wives Club on the small screen as well as Why Did I Get Married?, Couples Retreat, and Dolemite Is My Name on the big screen, joins Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys 4, for which plot details are currently being kept under wraps.
While there had been some skepticism over whether Bad Boys 4 would happen following Will Smith’s Oscars behavior and “the slap heard around the world,” the action sequel was confirmed back in January. “It’s official, y’all,” Smith said in a post shared to Instagram. “Bad Boys for life, baby! For life!” Smith’s co-star, Martin Lawrence, then appears adding, “But we did For Life… but, it’s still Bad Boys for life!” Smith then quickly points out that they probably should have saved the title Bad Boys 4 Life for the fourth movie saying, “We shouldn’t have called it that, though. But, this is Bad Boys 4, it’s official.”
Bad Boys 4 will see the return of Will Smith as Detective Lieutenant Michael Eugene ‘Mike’ Lowrey and Martin Lawrence as Detective Lieutenant Marcus Miles Burnett alongside Paola Núñez, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, and Charles Melton. Fantastic Four star Ioan Gruffudd was recently added to the roster, with Euphoria and X-Men: The Last Stand star Eric Dane on board as the villain of the piece.
Bad Boys 4 Could Be the Best Movie in the Franchise, Martin Lawrence Has Declared
The last audiences saw of beloved detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett was in 2020’s Bad Boys for Life AKA Bad Boys 3, which sees them join the Miami Police Department’s special team AMMO to bring down the ruthless Armando, who is on a mission to kill Mike at his mother Isabel’s orders. Directed by filmmaking duo Adil & Bilall, Bad Boys for Life quickly became a huge success, receiving praise from both critics and audiences alike and going on to gross $426.5 million worldwide.
This box office success makes Bad Boys for Life the third highest-grossing January release of all time, the fourth highest-grossing movie of 2020, and the highest-grossing installment in the Bad Boys franchise. Meaning that Bad Boys 4 now has a lot to live up to…
And live up to it the fourth outing will according to returning star Martin Lawrence, who recently declared that Bad Boys 4 has the potential to be “the best” installment in the franchise. “It has the chance to be the best one of them all and everybody’s doing their thing,” Lawrence said last month. “We got a lot of the team back from the last one. Big Willie’s doing his thing as always and so focused and, yeah, it has the chance to be the biggest one.”
Directed once again by directed by Adil & Bilall from a script by Chris Bremner, Bad Boys 4 does not yet have a release date.
