After years of development, the White Men Can't Jump remake finally got off the ground about 11 months ago when it was officially announced that rapper/actor Jack Harlow would star in the film – taking on the role parallel to the one that Woody Harrelson played in the original. Now, in the early months of 2023, that film is just about ready to come out, and a first look has been posted online.
With no caption, Jack Harlow himself shared the debut footage from the new White Men Can't Jump on his personal Twitter page. In the clips, we meet the characters played by Harlow and co-star Sinqua Walls (in the Wesley Snipes part), who, despite the differences in their personalities and backgrounds, team up to make some serious money playing streetball.
This is the second remake of 2023 coming from director Calmatic, who also helmed the new version of House Party that was released last month. Unlike that movie, however, White Men Can't Jump isn't going to be going to theaters, and instead it's going to be a Hulu original (hopefully it will end up getting a better critical reception than House Party). 20th Century Studios has already announced that the film will be coming out on May 16 – which is the same week that the blockbuster Fast X arrives in cinemas.
Kenya Barris, who has co-written the script with Doug Hall, first got involved with White Men Can't Jump back in early 2017, but obviously it's taken a while for the remake to move through the stages of development. The casting of Jack Harlow was a huge step forward, and he made a huge impression on the filmmakers during his audition (which according to the original trade report, was his first as an actor). The movie's cast also includes Laura Harrier, Lance Reddick, Teyana Taylor, and Vince Staples.
The original White Men Can't Jump is rightfully viewed as one of the best basketball movies ever made, and it's aged tremendously well – in large part because of the charms of stars Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson, and Rosie Perez (who has voiced criticism of the remake being made). If you're in the mood to remind yourself of just how good the film is, you could be enjoying it right now if you have a Hulu subscription.
The biggest hurdle that the 2023 White Men Can't Jump is going to have to get over is comparisons to the original, and while that won't be an easy task, we can certainly hope that the will work and that it provides us with some big laughs this summer. Hopefully it's not just a beat-for-beat re-do with more modern sensibilities and pop culture references. Instead, we're keeping our fingers crossed that it will have the same plot basics of the original, but uses them to go in a different direction narratively.
We'll have to wait and see when the remake hits Hulu in mid-May – and you can check out what else is on the way with our 2023 Movie Release Calendar.
