There is new life in the Bad Boys franchise. After 17 years away from the big screen, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence suited up once again as Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett in Bad Boys for Life (2020). Hauling in over $420 million on a $90 million budget was enough for Sony Pictures to give the green light to a fourth installment, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, which arrived in theaters earlier this summer. Bad Boys: Ride or Die continued the franchise’s financial momentum, raking in nearly $400 million in the midst of what has become an unpredictable box office market.
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These new films see Smith and Lawrence leading a largely new-look ensemble that includes notable names like Vanessa Hudgens, Tiffany Haddish, and Alexander Ludwig. That said, there is one original Bad Boys star outside of the titular duo that can claim to being in all four films: Joe Pantoliano.
Pantoliano plays Conrad Howard, the police captain that Mike and Marcus report to. While Conrad is a large role in both Bad Boys (1995) and Bad Boys II (2003), he is killed early in the events of Bad Boys for Life. Pantoliano’s Conrad is brought back in Ride or Die in a vision capacity, appearing to Marcus while he is in a coma.
“He just got extra cash,” Pantoliano joked when asked by ComicBook if he felt additional closure upon his return for the fourth installment. “I think the audience was disappointed that they killed him off and so they found a way to bring him back.”
That “they” was spearheaded by Smith himself, as Pantoliano revealed that 2022’s Best Actor played a pivotal part in finding a way to incorporate Conrad into the Ride or Die story.
“Will had a lot to do with that. ‘We got to figure out a way to bring the Captain back.’ I was really grateful that that happened,” Pantoliano revealed. “I didn’t have him with him firsthand, but I would get calls from (producer) Doug Belgrad. He would call me and say, ‘Look, right now it feels like this is what’s going to happen.’”
Bad Boys: Ride or Die was likely Pantoliano’s official swan song within the franchise. Smith has said that there are ambitions to make a Bad Boys 5 depending on the critical response and box office performance of Ride or Die.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die is now available on home media.
