Will Smith may not have been quite as prominent in Hollywood in the last year after his now-infamous Oscars slap, but Sony recently gave his new Bad Boys sequel a release date and Smith has been bringing himself back into the fold with a handful of other roles being lined up. However, as the actor’s strike starts hitting Hollywood hard, the actor took to his Instagram to share his thoughts on the strikes crippling the industry he is part of, and pay tribute to the person who put him there. Smith said:
“I wanna talk for a second about ACTING. As some of yall mighta heard, my guild, @SAGAFTRA are on strike along with our writer colleagues in the WGA. It’s a pivotal moment for our profession. 33 years into my career as an actor and there are still some days when I feel like I’m that kid from Philly who’s on borrowed time, even though I know I’ve been extraordinarily blessed and lucky to have worked as an actor all this time. It’s thanks to my friend, my teacher and my mentor @aaronspeiser whom I fondly refer to as ‘coach’ that those days when I feel like I don’t belong are fewer and further between.
Coach invited me to an acting class the other day and I met a group of our talented next generation of actors and they amazed and inspired me! I’m grateful to coach for continuing to support these talented hopefuls in this art-form that I love and have been lucky enough to work in for three decades of my life! Thanks COACH!”
Will Smith Will Be Back on the Big Screen With Bad Boys 4 in 2024.
While Hollywood is once again entering a period where nothing is certain, pretty much as it did in the latter stages of the Covid pandemic, Sony has been rearranging its upcoming slate to what it believes is a reasonable position to prevent multiple delays for its biggest movies. While this news saw movies like Kraven the Hunter and Ghostbusters: Afterlife 2 take a hefty shove into 2024, Bad Boys 4 was finally given a release date of June 14, 2024.
Will Smith and co-star Martin Lawrence made a successful comeback in the Bad Boys franchise in 2020 as one of the last movies released before the Covid pandemic forced cinemas into shutdown. That immediately saw Sony movie ahead with a follow-up, but between the pandemic and Smith’s Oscar’s meltdown, it has been slow going for the fourth movie in the franchise.
Up to now, Sony has remained tight-lipped over the plot of the latest chapter in the action series, and with the movie not being released for another year, along with the clear delays that the current strikes will bring, it is probably going to be some time before we find out more about Smith and Lawrence’s new story. So far, the cast has been revealed to include Vanessa Hudgens reprising her role as Kelly, and Ioan Gruffudd as new character, Lockwood.