Michael Bay And Will Smith Were Supposed To Re-team On His New Netflix Movie, But There's Bad News For Those Who Love Bayhem

Will Smith and Michael Bay go way back, as the latter made his filmmaking debut directing the former in Bad Boys, which helped propel Smith to worldwide fame as he was doing The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Three decades after that collaboration, the two men were gearing up to reunite for an upcoming Netflix subscription-exclusive movie. Unfortunately, I have some disappointing news for those of you who were looking forward to this bout of Bayhem, as the director of this duo has departed the project.

Michael Bay is no longer attached to Fast & Loose, which will see Will Smith playing a man who wakes up in Tijuana with no memories and eventually discovers he’s been living two lives: one as a crime kingpin and the other as an undercover CIA operative. According to Deadline, Bay’s departure stems from creative differences with Smith. The outlet notes that Fast & Loose has both action and comedic moments, but Bay reportedly wanted more of the former, while Smith wanted the latter to be emphasized.

So now the search for a new director is underway, as Netflix is looking to get Fast & Loose’s principal photography underway by October. No potential contenders are mentioned in the article, but fingers crossed that Smith and the other producers can find someone soon, otherwise filming will likely need to be pushed into 2026. Fast & Loose is written by Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, Chris Bremner and Eric Pearson, and Kelly McCormick and David Leitch from 87West are also attached to produce.

While Fast & Loose didn’t work out for Michael Bay, he has other cinematic irons in the fire. In April, it was reported that he’s going to team up with Sydney Sweeney for the upcoming video game adaptation OutRun. Then in June, word came in that he’s supposedly developing a new Transformers movie for Paramount Pictures that he wants to direct. Alas, reports of Bay working on a Skibidi Toilet movie have been greatly exaggerated, as he amusingly made clear in a video.

As for Will Smith, he was last seen on the big screen teaming back up with Martin Lawrence and directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah for Bad Boys: Ride or Die. While the prospects of Bad Boys 5 happening reportedly aren’t looking good right now, Smith is set to return to another one of his past properties with I Am Legend 2, where he’ll co-star alongside Michael B. Jordan. He was also lined up for a Planes, Trains and Automobiles remake with Kevin Hart back in 2022, but it’s unclear if that project is still happening.

For now, it’s looking like Fast & Loose will be the next movie we see Will Smith in, so continue visiting CinemaBlend for updates on its progress. Don’t forget to also look over the 2025 Netflix release dates to see what’s headed to the streamer for the rest of the year.