Will Smith Slap Puts 'Bad Boys 4' & Other Movies Reportedly On Hold

Since the Oscars 2022 aired, "the Will Smith slap" has basically been a coined term and quite possibly the most talked-about celebrity incident of this year. Before he resigned from the Academy, he had a couple of movie projects in the works.

Now, we beg the question: what happened to all of those films?

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fast and Loose was a Netflix project searching for a director to guide the production. Bad Boys 4 with Sony was already in motion to start filming, and Emancipation with Apple+ was in postproduction.

These three films are reportedly in jeopardy all because of Will Smith's actions toward comedian and former Oscar host, Chris Rock.

The Hollywood Reporter said Netflix is putting Fast and Loose on hold at the moment. They also reported that Smith received 40 pages of the Bad Boys 4 script, but production is currently inactive. As for Emancipation, there is no word on a release date.

Movie schedule changes also have an effect on location. Miami, Florida, in particular, could feel the blow to its arts scene, as many Bad Boys franchises were widely filmed in the city. In fact, Smith and costar Martin Lawrence even received a key to the city.

Bad Boys director, Michael Bay, even had some words about the infamous slap.

"First of all, it’s wrong to begin with, but that’s all people are talking about. And I don’t really care. Hollywood gets really self-absorbed. There are babies getting blown up in Ukraine right now. We should be talking about that," Bay told Yahoo Entertainment.

After the director alluded to what he felt was more important, he said that he thought the whole thing was a setup.

"Listen, it was a slap. It wasn’t a punch. He’s very good at fighting, he’s trained at that," said Bay, "but it’s wrong to begin with.”

We'll update this article for any confirmed updates on upcoming Smith projects.