Bad Boys director Michael Bay has quit the team for Netflix’s forthcoming action film Fast and Loose over creative differences with Will Smith.
The 60-year-old filmmaker made his directorial debut with the hit action-comedy Bad Boys in 1995, which starred Smith, 56, and Martin Lawrence, 60, as detectives in the Miami Police Department.
Bay and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Smith were set to reunite for Fast and Loose, which follows Smith’s character – a criminal kingpin and undercover CIA agent – after he wakes up with no memory in Tijuana, Mexico.
However, the director will no longer be part of the project as he and Smith – who’s doubling as the movie’s star and producer – had different visions regarding the film’s genre.
According to Deadline, Bay wanted to focus on the action elements of the film, while Smith wanted to lean into the story’s comedy potential.
Fast and Loose was scheduled to start production this October but will now be moved back to sometime in 2026, Entertainment Weekly reports.
Bad Boys – an action comedy following two unruly Miami narcotics detectives – made $141m (£104m) worldwide.
Bay returned to direct Bad Boys II in 2003, with both Smith and Lawrence returning for two further sequels in 2020 and 2024, which Bay produced. Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah took over directorial duties
Back in 2022, Bay spoke to the outlet about his uphill battle selling the original film to studios. “Sony didn't believe in the movie, because two Black actors don't sell overseas,” he said.
Bay said Sony had “no faith” in the film and gave him only a $9m (£6.6m) budget to make the movie. “They shut me down, literally. They shut the power off.”
The filmmaker is currently the fifth most commercially successful director in history, directing box office hits including the first five films in the Transformers series and Pearl Harbor in 2001.
Smith went on to start in hits including The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), I Am Legend (2007) andSeven Pounds (2008) and, in 2022, he won an Oscar for Best Actor following his role as Serena and Venus William’s father in King Richard
His win was overshadowed by an incident at the awards ceremony that saw the star slap comedian Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia.
The actor and rapper was banned from the Oscars for 10 years and he has kept a relatively low profile in subsequent years, re-emerging with drama Emancipation and fourth Bad Boys film, Ride or Die. In March 2025, he also released his first album in 20 years, which was savaged by critics.
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