Despite “Rush Hour” propelling Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker’s careers, both have kept a relatively low profile in the U.S. since the third Film. Tucker has only appeared in a handful of movies following 2007’s “Rush Hour 3” (including “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Air”), and the actor has battled legal issues with the IRS as far back as 2002, and as recent as 2021. For Chan, aside from starring in a few Hollywood productions in the early 2000s like “Shanghai Noon” and “Shanghai Knights” with Owen Wilson, and lending his voice to “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” and the “Kung Fu Panda” movies, he has primarily worked in mainland China in recent years.

Although the professional and personal lives of the two leads may have put “Rush Hour 4” on the back burner for the first decade, the last few years have been complicated greatly by the franchise’s association with Brett Ratner, who directed all three installments of the trilogy.

In November 2017, a number of women accused Ratner of sexual assault and harassment, prompting Warner Bros. (parent company of New Line Cinema, the studio behind the “Rush Hour” films) to cut all ties with the director. Seemingly unfazed, Ratner reportedly told associates months after the allegations that he would return to the director’s chair to helm the fourth film. Warner Bros. had expressed interest in reviving the franchise, even tapping Kenya Barris to write a script, but were forced to “put a pin” in the film regardless of the beleaguered director’s own proclamations.