Early last month, I reported on the return of Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, and Ice Cube for a new Jump Street movie, a sequel that took so long to come that the movie titles are now 21 Jump St, 22 Jump St, and the soon-to-happen 24 Jump St.
See what they did there? They skipped 23 Jump St. Because it took so long. And that’s a bit funny for sure, but there’s another (kinda) reason, which is that for many years, a Jump St and Men In Black crossover movie was at the planning stages, and it was to act as 23 Jump St, although it was to be called MiB 23, acting as a sequel to both franchises.
It was exciting for fans because it wasn’t only a good idea; it opened the door for Ghostbusters and other franchises to possibly come into one big world.
The 24 Jump St gag also hints that somewhere along the way, our memories were erased and the MiB crossover is out there; we just don’t recall.
24 Jump Street written, Tatum and Hill in talks to return as Schmidt and Jenko
Indeed, back in 2022, star Channing Tatum said of the cancelled crossover: “I still think it could work, I really do. And if Sony would ever really, like, I think do the hard work and figure out the producer problems that are inherent with that film, I think we can still do it. But right now, I don’t know why; they’re just not motivated to do it. It’s a big overhead on that movie, so.”
He went on to say it was “by and away the best third sequel to any franchise that I’ve ever read, in my entire life”.
Now, producers of the new movie and directors of the first two Jump St movies have been talking about the plan for the sequel and have said something that has made our Spider-Sense tingle… even if just a little.
“We developed a 23 Jump Street, and I think this is just out of respect for that,” says Lord, “We’re calling this 24, out of respect for the dead.”
Will Smith making a Men In Black return? Could the Jump St crossover still happen? Maybe…
“There was a script that was made years ago. And the dust has been blown off of it, and it’s being rewritten right now,” says Miller.
Now, correct me if I’m wrong – and it has happened once or twice before – but the ONLY Jump St sequel that I’m aware of having been developed was, you guessed it, the Men in Black crossover.
Throw in the fact that in September 2024, it was reported that Will Smith was in talks to return to the Men in Black franchise, and also bear in mind that Tatum has also hinted that he would only return for a Jump St sequel that was the crossover or otherwise really, really good: “It was a perfect idea, and it was perfectly executed. So, anything that we’ve written other than that just hasn’t hit the bar. And we’re not gonna just go make it just to make it — those first two movies were special for me and Jonah [Hill]. We didn’t want to just be like, ‘Oh, let’s go send a third one, who cares what it is.’”
Could we be about to get the long-in-development-hell Jump St/Men in Black crossover? I know in my heart that’s not likely, but I also am an optimist, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we’re going to get the sequel to both franchises that we’ve waited many years for.
I guess we’ll know soon enough.
Thoughts? I know you have them and I wanna hear ’em all.
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Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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