Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, and Charles Melton have officially joined the cast of Bad Boys for Life. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence finally confirmed that the sequel was really happening back at the beginning of November with a video post on social media that quickly went viral and the response has been awesome so far. The two actors are happy to be working together again and production is expected to begin early next year, which means that we should get some pictures from the set coming in real soon.

It has been revealed that Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, and Charles Melton are playing a highly specialized police unit in Bad Boys 3 who end up meeting Will Smith and Martin Lawrence's characters when a new threat emerges in Miami. The latest casting news comes after it was revealed that Joe Pantoliano will reprise his role of Captain Howard, which has gotten fans even more excited. It will be interesting to see how former High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens and Riverdale star Charles Melton are accepted into the franchise by fans.

According to sources close to Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, the duo have been conducting chemistry tests with potential actors for Bad Boys 3. Apparently they were conducting said tests with Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, and Charles Melton and then again with the villain role. A villain has yet to be announced at this time, but it appears that Hudgens, Melton, and Ludwig were able to pass their chemistry tests with Smith and Lawrence. Hopefully the production releases the villain soon, so we can get a better idea of what this new threat to Miami is after all of these years sitting around and waiting for the movie to be announced.

Production on Bad Boys 3 is expected to begin January 14th and last through April 11th, filming in Atlanta and Miami. Additionally, the title is reportedly Bad Boys for Lif3, though that has not been officially confirmed by the studio at this time. That being said, let's hope they think of a better way of incorporating that number 3 because it looks super forced. Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are directing the sequel from a script written by Chris Bremmer, with earlier drafts by Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan.

Bad Boys 3 hits theaters on January 17th, 2020 with Jerry Bruckheimer on board to produce, along with Doug Belgrad and Will Smith. Barry Waldman, Mike Stenson, Chad Oman, and James Lassiter are executive producers. It's an exciting time for fans of the action genre with the Fast and Furious spin-off Hobbs and Shaw on the way as well. The original Bad Boys helped pave the way for movies like the Fast and Furious franchise to exist. The Bad Boys 3 casting news was originally reported by Variety and the villain should be announced shortly.