'Bad Boys For Life' Trailer: Sh*t Just Got Real...Again

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are at it yet again in Bad Boys For Life, the long-awaited third entry in the bombastic action series. Original director Michael Bay is sitting this one out, replaced by filmmakers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Will they be able to bring the appropriate level of Bayhem to this flick? Or are we in for something brand-new? Watch the Bad Boys For Life trailer below and decide for yourself.

It's crazy to think that Bad Boy 2 came out 16 years ago. So much has changed in the world since then. But some things never change – like the public's desire to watch Will Smith and Martin Lawrence shoot people in slow-motion. In Bad Boys For Life, "Old-school cops Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett team up to take down the vicious leader of a Miami drug cartel. Newly created elite team AMMO of the Miami police department along with Mike and Marcus go up against the ruthless Armando Armas."

Since Smith and Lawrence are both a bit older now than when they started this whole thing, Bad Boys For Life adds some fresh faces to the mix. Alexander Ludwig (Vikings), Vanessa Hudgens (The Princess Switch), and Charles Melton (Riverdale) 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 road to bring Bad Boys For Life to life has been a bit bumpy. There was some difficulty getting Martin Lawrence to sign on to the project. On top of that, the film went through several different scripts – including one by Joe Carnahan, who was also floated as a possible director for the sequel. But Carnahan's vision didn't seem to gel with that of star Will Smith. "I love Will, he's a great guy," Carnahan said. "I just know myself. And I thought what we were doing at that point was the law of diminishing returns. I wasn't servicing the story that I was really excited about telling, that the studio had greenlit. And again, this isn't to throw shade at Will — it's your face on the poster, it's your name on the poster, you need to do things the way you want them done."

And now here we are at last, with the film close to release. Will it be worth the long wait? We'll know for sure when Bad Boys For Life opens January 17, 2020.