Why 'Training Day' Still Hits in 2025

Here's something I didn't have on my 2025 bingo card. Timothée Chalamet recently pitched a Training Day remake, and NBA star Anthony Edwards wants to play Denzel Washington's iconic corrupt cop role.

Look, this was all likely just a joke. The idea came up during the inaugural Believe That Awards this month, where Chalamet was crowned "White Boy of the Year" (yes, really). It was a decidedly casual atmosphere, a 20-minute YouTube livestream with plenty of hijinks, so take all this with a grain of salt.

Edwards and Chalamet were joking about the actor moving into directing, and Chalamet brought it up.

"Whenever you start directing a movie and you need somebody to be your main character, call your boy," Edwards said.

Chalamet commented that he needed more "street cred," to the audience's amusement.

Then he added, "It could be a Training Day reboot."

Edwards got excited. "Let me be Denzel [Washington] and you be Officer Hoyt."

Edwards had one non-negotiable demand he mentioned up top, though.

"I can't die in the movie. That's the only thing."

Smart move, considering how audiences reacted to Washington's character getting gunned down in the original. Test screenings were apparently brutal.

The guys were probably just being silly, but this whole thing got me thinking about the legacy of the film.

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The Original Training Day

In the original film, Washington's Alonzo Harris was a corrupt narcotics officer who weaponized mentorship, manipulating rookie Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) through a single, devastating 12-hour shift in Los Angeles.

The film asked questions that are unfortunately still timely. What happens when those sworn to protect become predators? How does systemic corruption perpetuate itself?

Washington's performance won him his first Academy Award and cemented the film as one of the best cop movies ever made.

The cultural conversations around policing have continued since 2001, moving from academic circles to mainstream discourse. A Training Day reboot might be perfectly timed for our charged political times, more than two decades after Antoine Fuqua's film hit theaters.

What Would Fresh Perspectives Mean?

The Chalamet-Edwards pitch, humorous as it was, does remind us that many of today's up-and-coming filmmakers are from a generation that grew up watching police brutality videos go viral and witnessed multiple racial equality protests in the last few years alone.

Young actors and directors bringing their lens to classic narratives can breathe new life into familiar territory, but only if they're willing to do more than just update the aesthetic.

Could a filmmaker interrogate police corruption in 2025 with the same nuance Fuqua brought in 2001, while also acknowledging everything we've learned since?

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Can Lightning Strike Twice?

Before we get too excited about any remake, it's worth noting that Warner Bros. has been developing a Training Day prequel since 2019.

The studio hired screenwriter Nick Yarborough to pen Training Day: Day of the Riot, which would be set nearly a decade before the original film, in late April 1992, just two days before the Rodney King verdict.

The franchise already tried expansion once before with a CBS television series produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Bill Paxton and Justin Cornwell. The show was set 15 years after the original film and followed two LAPD cops navigating the same morally gray waters.

The series was cancelled after just one season following Paxton's death in 2017.

As for the prequel, it reportedly received $9.1 million in California tax credits in 2022, suggesting it was moving forward with production.

However, in 2023, Fuqua told Digital Spy that the prequel was unlikely to move forward.

"There was a time when a prequel for Training Day sounded interesting, but it would have had to be done with Denzel back then, when he was closer to that age," he said, adding, "I just don't think it would be the same without him."

So, here's a question. Could a remake capture the essence of what made Training Day unforgettable while speaking to our current anxieties about justice and power? Or should we leave this crime classic alone?