Will Smith Wasn’t Happy With Men In Black Sequel

Bad Boys for Life is close at hand and the third installment of the popular franchise has Will Smith reflective about some of the other mega-franchises that he’s been a part of over the years. One of those series is Men in Black, and the superstar wishes he could make audiences forget one of the intervening installments after the first smash hit. He told Jimmy Fallon about his feelings during a recent interview. Smith was not shy when addressing exactly how he felt about the prospect of just doing sequels for the sake of sequels. This, of course, is his reasoning for why Bad Boys for Life took so long to materialize. The star wasn’t going to move and re-visit that story until the story was absolutely necessary and up to his standards. But, unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said about his work with the Men in Black franchise.

“What we tried to do, that was really critical and important to me, is not try to just do the old movies again,” Smith said of 1995’s Bad Boys and 2003’s Bad Boys II. “You had to take into consideration the time, had to take into consideration how the characters would have grown. And the reason it took so long is because I didn’t want to make it just as a cash grab. You know, ‘Hey, everybody loves sequels, let’s just do a sequel.’”

He continued, “”I had fumbled a couple of my last sequels. You know, I wasn’t happy with the Men in Black sequel. I’m going to keep it real: sometimes I say ‘y’all are gonna love it,’ and y’all not gonna love it,” he said with a laugh. “You know, ’cause sometimes I’ve seen it, and I know y’all not gonna love it, but it’s an expensive movie. But this time…it is so good.”

So, that’s pretty strong support for the upcoming Bad Boys film. Hopefully, fans will share that excitement when the time comes for the film to hit theaters.

Production Weekly describes Bad Boys for Life:

“The new installment centers on the Miami PD and its elite AMMO team’s attempt to take down Armando Armas (Jacob Scipio), head of a drug cartel. Armando is a cold-blooded killer with a vicious, taunting nature. He is committed to the work of the cartel and is dispatched by his mother to kill Mike (Will Smith).”

Bad Boys for Life hits theaters January 17th.