Will Smith made Bad Boys sequel for fans

Will Smith made 'Bad Boys for Life' for the fans who always asked for another movie.

The 51-year-old actor reprises his role as Detective Mike Lowrey in the third film in the buddy cop series and follow-up to 'Bad Boys II', which came out in 2003.

Will knew he had to reunite with his co-star Martin Lawrence - who plays Mike's partner Detective Marcus Burnett - at some point because a third movie was the project his fans requested the most because there is so much love for his character and the original 1995 movie.

Speaking at the 'Bad Boys for Life' premiere in Miami, Will said: "Of the movies I've done where people walk up on the street and say, 'Hey, man, when are you going to do another one?' 'Bad Boys' is the one. Nobody is asking for 'Pursuit of Happiness 2'."

The film's co-director Adil El Arbi thinks the 17-year wait for the action flick is what makes the sequel such a great story.

Adil said: "If you just do a copy, then people aren't going to be as interested. You have to continue the evolution of these characters ... in this case, we really wanted to explore the emotion, the conflict between these two characters who are much older. That is what makes the movie fresh compared to the other ones."

The film sees the detective duo of Mike and Marcus Burnett (Martin) at odds with each other over giving up their dangerous lifestyles. Marcus wants to retire, whilst Mike still wants to live up to his fearless reputation but the pair are forced into one last mission when Mike is ordered to be assassinated.

Adil, 31, and his filmmaking partner Bilall Fallah have taken over from Michael Bay to helm the project but they have promised that the film contains the same action and humour as the previous movies.

Adil said: "The movies were a product of their times and we wanted this movie to be a homage to the 90s, so this nostalgia that you don't necessarily have in those other two movies, that's something new that you see in this one."