Following the release of 22 Jump Street in 2014, several ideas were kicked around on how to keep the film series going. Unquestionably the strangest of the bunch was pairing Channing Tatum's Greg Jenko and Jonah Hill's Morton Schmidt with members of the Men in Black organization for what was eventually titled MIB23. Unfortunately for those of you interested in that premise, that project has been scrapped. Speaking about MIB23, Men in Black producer Walter Parkes said the following:
We gave it a shot. It turned out to be an impossible match-up.
It doesn't get much more succinct than that. Walter Parkes revealed MIB23's cancellation while speaking with Empire, thus bringing an end to this four year-long tale. The idea of MIB23 was among the many details made public by the Sony emails hack towards the end of 2014, but Sony decided to move forward with the crossover anyway. By the beginning of 2016, Muppets Most Wanted director James Bobin was hired to helm the project, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse's Rodney Rothman had written a script.
Beyond that, though, there were no major updates on MIB23's development. Jonah Hill said in August 2016 that he doubted the movie would get made because the point of the Jump Street movies was to make fun of sequels, remakes and reboots, and by crossing over with Men in Black, the property would become the very thing it was mocking. More than two years later, Hill's prediction has come true, as there just wasn't any way to effectively bring these properties together.
While we won't ever see the Men in Black and Jump Street worlds collide on the big screen, each franchise is continuing separately. Since Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones have hung up their ties and sunglasses, this June will see the release of Men in Black: International, the spinoff starring Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson as Agents H and M, respectively, who become involved in a murder mystery that sees them traveling across the globe. Emma Thompson's Agent O is the only character from the original Men in Black trilogy who's returning for this spinoff.
As for the Jump Street franchise, Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill aren't expected to return for a traditional 23 Jump Street, which is fine since the 22 Jump Street end credits cycled through practically all of the sequel possibilities. Instead, a female-led Jump Street spinoff, which has also been in development for a while, is moving forward, with Rodney Rothman penning the script and original Jump Street movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller producing. As of last month, Tiffany Haddish and Awkwafina are reportedly in talks to star.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all the latest updates about both of these Sony franchises, but in the meantime, feel free to look through our 2019 release schedule to discover which movies are coming out over the coming year.
