The 22 Jump Street end credits accounted for almost every direction the series could take for a third movie. Almost. Following the 2014 Sony email hack, it was revealed that the studio was considering joining the Jump Street franchise with Men in Black, a crossover that almost no one saw coming. Now over a year after the initial information leaked, Sony is officially moving forward with this crossover movie under new creative leadership.
Although Phil Lord and Christopher Miller directed the first two Jump Street movies, they’re unable to return for this one, due to their commitment to the Star Wars Han Solo spinoff. Instead, Variety has heard that The Muppets director James Bobin is in talks to helm the Jump Street / Men in Black action comedy. While it hasn’t been officially green-lit yet, the studio is looking at starting production by June.
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum will reprise their Jump Street characters Morton Schmidt and Greg Jenko, respectively. Sadly, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones will not returning as their Men in Black characters, Agent J and Agent K. Instead, younger actors will be cast to play the alien monitors and relaunch that franchise. Lord and Miller will still produce alongside Neil Moritz, and Rodney Rothman wrote the script. The article notes that there are only a few copies of the Jump Street / Men in Black movie script in circulation, so obviously Sony is taking great steps to ensure the plot doesn’t leak out like the movie concept itself did. That makes it hard to figure out how these two previously unconnected franchises can cross over in a way that doesn’t sound completely bonkers.
Following the same formula as the original 1980s TV series, 2012’s 21 Jump Street followed police officers Schmidt and Jenko as they went undercover as high school students, while 22 Jump Street had them assuming college student identities. The Men in Black movie series (based on the Malibu Comics title) kicked off in 1997, and J and K, two agents of a secret organization that tracks alien activity and keeps Earth safe from extraterrestrial threats. Men in Black II followed in 2002, and ten years later, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones returned for Men in Black 3, a time travel adventure that also featured Josh Brolin as a younger Agent K.
Are aliens secretly operating at a school where Schmidt and Jenko are undercover, thus necessitating that they team up with the Men in Black? Do the Men in Black recruit the Jump Street guys to infiltrate an alien operation disguised as aliens? Bringing these two worlds together will be tough, but with the right vision, this weird concept could be one of the more imaginative blockbusters coming in the near future. Of course, on top of being action packed, they’d need to make sure the movie’s jokes are strong, as both franchises lean heavily on humor.
Assuming that shooting begins when Sony would like it to, the Jump Street / Men in Black crossover movie will likely be released sometime next year on in 2018, but we’ll keep you apprised on updates regarding this bizarre project.
