Thor: Ragnarok co-stars Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson will be soon suiting up together again, this time in actual suits and as Men in Black agents. Finally, long after casting announcements and set photo teasers, the film seems to finally have a title -- Men in Black International.
Collider's Steven Weintraub caught a glimpse of the film's title while at Brazil Comic-Con (CCXP) this week in anticipation for a panel for the film on Saturday. The title isn't a surprise considering Chris Hemsworth shared that the cast and crew travelled to London, Morocco, Italy and New York City for the film when the production wrapped two months ago. However, keep in mind that there still hasn't been an official announcement from Sony regarding this title, so there's a chance, as slim as it may be, that the next Men in Black film could end up being called something else.
While the original Men in Black films starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones followed Agent J and K as they monitored alien activity in Manhattan, the new pair will be venturing much farther, possibly following a much more global threat. Rather than remake the franchise, Tessa Thompson's Agent M and Chris Hemsworth's Agent H will expand the existing universe, just as Jurassic World did for the Jurassic Park franchise.
Men in Black International will be the fourth MIB film, the franchise began in 1997 and ended in 2012 with Men in Black III. The upcoming spinoff has Fate and the Furious and Straight Outta Compton director F. Gray Gray at its helm and an impressive ensemble supporting cast, including Emma Thompson, Kumail Najiani, Rafe Spall, Rebecca Ferguson and Liam Neeson.
Emma Thompson will be the only actor (that we know of anyway) reprising a role from the previous Men in Black films. In the third film, Thompson took over for Rip Torn's Agent Zed as the new chief, Agent O. Her addition to the cast will help maintain continuity between the films, though it looks like the main branch in the film will be in London, lead by Liam Neeson as the boss of the operation.
It's exciting that the franchise is stretching out the world set up in the original trilogy and giving the new cast new locations to explore. Per a set photo from Tessa Thompson, the pair will be wandering the desert in suits with umbrellas, but will also travel much farther due to the title.
The heart of the franchise was the hilarious dynamic between Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as they maneuvered through the streets of New York to catch gross bug aliens and such. Considering Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson have a working relationship from their time on Thor: Ragnarok, they may be able to recapture the magic of the original along with separating themselves from what came before them.
Men in Black International is set to hit theaters on June 14, 2019, giving audiences a little time to perhaps find closure with the leads' Marvel counterparts before going on a completely different adventure with them.
