Jessica Alba joins Gabrielle Union in NBC’s Bad Boys TV spin-off

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Although a third BAD BOYS movie doesn't seem like a possibility at the moment, the franchise will potentially live on as a TV series centering around Special Agent Sydney "Syd" Burnett, the character Gabrielle Union played in BAD BOYS 2. Earlier this year, NBC ordered a pilot for the BAD BOYS spin-off, and now it appears that Jessica Alba will be staring in the pilot alongside Gabrielle Union.

The pilot, which was written by Brandon Margolis and Brandon Sonnier and will be directed by Anton Cropper, finds the free-spirited former DEA agent looking for a fresh start in her new job as an LAPD detective. She finds herself partnered with Nancy McKenna (Jessica Alba), "a working mom who can’t help but look at Syd’s freedom with some grass-is-greener envy. These two have totally different lifestyles and approaches, but they both are at the top of their fields in this action-packed, character-driven procedural." After joining the Army fresh out of high-school and spending most of the 2000s in Iraq and Afghanistan, McKenna joined the military police as a way to get closer to the action as women weren't allowed in combat. Now serving as an LAPD detective, McKenna is also raising her two preteen stepkids with her husband. It will be interesting to see if they'll be able to replicate some of the Michael Bay-style action on the small-screen, but for the moment, the potential series looks like our best bet for more BAD BOYS.

As for BAD BOYS 3, Sony Pictures removed the film from their release schedule last summer and Martin Lawrence doesn't seem optimistic that it will get off the ground again. "I don’t think we’re going to get one, not the way everything’s turning out," Lawrence said. "Will is off doing another movie, and I don’t think it’s going to happen." Back when the third film actually seemed like a possibility, Joe Carnahan (THE GREY) had signed on to write and direct the sequel, but, he wound up departing the project earlier this year. Before he exited, Joe Carnahan had teased that BAD BOYS FOR LIFE would have been the "strongest of the trilogy thus far," adding that the film would have dealt with "what becomes of Bad Boys when they're not boys anymore." Carnahan also said that "there’s a lot of funny shit in this movie, and there’s also a very mysterious, but tonally spot-on story that I think is kind of perfect for where we are in this day and age, where the guys are and reflectively, a very modern take on these guys."