The Bad Boys are Back! Will Smith & Martin Lawrence Ride Again in the Highly Anticipated "Bad Boys for Life"

After a wait of more than 15 years, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence will finally be seen back together again in Bad Boys for Life.

The third movie sees the duo reprise their roles as Detectives Lowrey & Burnett, & in a new interview, they've reflected on reuniting and returning to their breakout roles.

"It's so interesting when you come back together on a movie after this long," Smith said. "There's such a deep love for these characters and for this franchise. The first one was 23 years ago, which sounds crazy."

"Well I'm a lot heavier now so it's been 23 years," Lawrence joked.

He added: "I loved one and two, and I just wanted to get back with you again to do it because people need to see us again on camera. We made the characters real and in 3, they're gonna want to just ride with us."

When Michael Bay’s Bad Boys first plowed its way into theaters in 1995, Miami-Dade detectives Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) were hotshots at their prime who loved to shoot people in slow-motion. Almost 25 years later, Smith and Lawrence are older and wiser, but still as bad as ever — well, maybe not Lawrence’s Marcus, who just wants to put on a bathrobe and settle back in his La-Z boy.

That leaves Mike to carry the banner of bad boy for life, but even he balks at leading the new team of hotshots, played by newcomers Alexander Ludwig (Vikings), Vanessa Hudgens  (The Princess  Switch), and Charles Melton (Riverdale). The trio of new-gen badasses are “a modern, highly specialized police unit that collides with the old school Bad Boys (Smith and Lawrence) when a new threat emerges in Miami.” But even their youth & Mike’s expertise doesn’t cut it when faced with that new threat, and Mike & Marcus must again team up “one last time.”

In a recent interview, Martin Lawrence reflected on the extended wait Bad Boys fans endured, chalking up the delay to a Will Smith-inspired patience for a script that hits certain notes.

When asked by Zach Baron in a published GQ profile to give the "most concise explanation" for the delay, Lawrence pointed to the script.

"The script wasn't right," he said.  "And Will, to his credit, refused to do the movie until the script was right. It wouldn't have been a good movie. We didn't want that. We wanted to do a sequel where people would go, 'Oh, man, that's what I'm talking about. It just gets better.'"

Smith, of course, is known for having a heavy amount of creative input regarding his projects. And back in April of last year, director Joe Carnahan elaborated on how he ultimately left the Bad Boys sequel, suggesting it came down to Smith's vision for the franchise.

After a long wait, the third installment if finally here. And the fans couldn't be more excited.

Bad Boys for Life is directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah and hits theaters January 17, 2020.