KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 — Two years ago, director Jack Neo revealed that he planned to continue his Ah Boys to Men franchise with two more instalments, expanding the trilogy to a pentalogy.

Ah Boys to Men 4 is the latest title in the hit franchise, which is currently showing in Singapore and slated for release in Malaysia on Thursday.

To promote the new movie in Malaysia, the director and his Ah Boys — and sole Ah Girl — visited Kuala Lumpur yesterday for a press conference with the media as well as to meet fans at the gala premiere later that evening.

When asked about the development on the fifth movie, which was originally planned to be filmed together with the fourth movie and released during Chinese New Year 2018, the director replied that it has yet to be filmed.

"Frankly speaking, because I'm not Armour-trained, I thought it was very easy. When we filmed it then I realised it wasn't easy. So finally we decided to postpone the fifth movie to next year."

He added that though he planned to film the fifth instalment sometime in 2018, most likely it will only happen if Ah Boys to Men 4 does well at the box office.

The fourth movie sees Tosh Zhang, Wang Weiliang, Joshua Tan, Maxi Lim, Noah Yap and more reprising their roles, only this time as NSmen returning for ICT (in-camp training — Singaporean males who have completed full-time National Service are required to serve a 10-year ICT cycle).

This time they are joined by the franchise's first ever 'Ah Girl', Apple Chan, who stars as army officer Zhang Xinyi (Apple Chan).

With a theme revolving around the SAF (Singapore Armed Forces) Armour Unit, the fourth movie hits the big screen in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Singapore's National Service.

Malaysian fans have to wait a couple more days for Ah Boys to Men 4 to open in cinemas but in Singapore, the movie opened big on November 9, collecting S$2.55 million (approximately RM8 million) during its opening weekend. — CinemaOnline