You know when, sometimes, the universe just aligns? Could we finally see the 21 Jump St/Men In Black movie we reported on almost a decade ago come to fruition?
After the hits that were 2008’s 21 Jump St and then 2012’s 22 Jump St, the franchise looked set to head to the stars with star Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, along with directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller heading to the Men In Black universe (although eventually, The Muppets’ James Bobin signed on to direct).
Yes, the two franchises were going to crossover with the 23 Jump St movie having them become MiB in a project that was revealed during the now infamous Sony emails leak and was tentatively called MiB23.
However, the project never happened and while we then got the terrible Men In Black International in 2019 starring Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson and that killed the franchise. So, instead of a crossover that was inspired, we now have two dead franchises.
Until now. Maybe.
Ok, so first up, we’re hearing that after International, Sony have had conversations with Will Smith about returning to the Men In Black franchise as Agent Jay (at near 80, Tommy Lee Jones is unlikely to return) and, at the same time, there seems to be some chatter about the third Jump St movie actually happening.
“There is a project that was written and it’s still the best script that I’ve ever read for a third movie,” Tatum has said in a new interview about the MiB23 script.
“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.’”
Tatum goes on that the issue was bureaucracy but he’s still hopeful it might happen: “It’s just a lot of bureaucracy, kind of above the line stuff. It’s really hard to get it made and we’ve been trying to get it done.”
The star is also keen to say that Hill wants to return too: “You know what, I’m going to put some good juju out there and I’m going to say I would love to see 23 Jump Street. I would love to do it with Jonah, and Jonah I know wants to do it. We would love to just get to go play again.”
Finally, just to pour some more fuel on the fire, MiB23 writer Rodney Rothman started to reignite interest in the project in June when he shared a post, below, showing the title page.
Still a long shot, but nothing is impossible.
Wanna see the rest? https://t.co/Bd8GfB3gli pic.twitter.com/ozd3El0R4H
— Rodney Rothman (@rodneyrothman) June 25, 2024
At the time when this was all happening we were still waiting to see what was going to become of the Ghostbusters franchise too and I had speculated that, if Jump St and MiB crossed over, it’s not entirely impossible that a Ghostbusters crossover could happen too and, honestly, I still think that could happen, however unlikely, after all, the MiB have met the Ghostbusters already, so putting them together on the big screen might not but completely out of the question.
What say you all? Will it happen? Let me know your thoughts, gang.
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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