‘Bad Boys 3’ Cast Adds Vanessa Hudgens And More
TheBad Boys 3cast is starting to come together. The film has just addedAlexander Ludwig,Vanessa Hudgens, andCharles Meltonto star alongsideWill SmithandMartin Lawrence. Hudgens, Ludwig, and Melton are playing a highly-specialized police unit that clashes with Smith and Lawrence’s characters on the job. More on theBad Boys 3cast below.
Bad Boys 3(which is officially calledBad Boys 4 Life, which actually makes this sound like the fourth entry in the series, not the third) was an uncertainty for a long time. Stars Martin Lawrence and Will Smith kept going back and forth on whether or not they wanted to return to the franchise. Eventually, Smith was all-in, but Lawrence’s participation was in doubt. Then in November, the film wasofficiallylocked down as Lawrencefinally signed on. Now, according toVariety, the rest of the cast is coming on board as well.
Per their story, Alexander Ludwig (Vikings), Vanessa Hudgens(The PrincessSwitch),and Charles Melton (Riverdale) are the latest additions. The three young actors play “a modern, highly specialized police unit that collides with the old school Bad Boys (Smith and Lawrence) when a new threat emerges in Miami.” The story goes that Smith and Lawrence have been doing “chemistry tests” with various actors for four specific roles, and Ludwig, Hudgens, and Melton were the most impressive. The fourth role is apparently that of the villain, which is still being worked out.
This casting suggests thatBad Boys 3is going to have a storyline involving old school vs. new school, with the aging Smith and Lawrence no longer the young hotshots they once were. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess there are going to be a dozen groan-worthy jokes about Smith and Lawrence being old men now. Who knows, maybe there will even be a scene where Lawrence and Smith say, in unison, “I’m gettin' too old for this shit!”
Adil El ArbiandBilall Fallahare helming the film, taking over from franchise director Michael Bay. The script has gone through a few incarnations.Peter Craig(The Hunger Games: Mockingjay,Transformers) wrote a draft, andJoe Carnahan(The Grey) did a rewrite.Chris Bremmeris the current writer on the project.
I enjoyed the first twoBad Boysfilms, for the most part. They’re big, loud, and dumb. They’re also often terribly tone-deaf –Bad Boys IIin particular is often shockingly nasty and offensive. But the prospect of seeing Smith and Lawrence together again is promising, and I’ll admit I’m curious to see how this all turns out.
