A 21 Jump Street/Men In Black crossover may sound like an idea that originates from a movie that is satirizing Hollywood, but it was a real thing. At the end of 2014, leaked emails from Sony revealed that the project was in the works, with the intention being for it to exist as a follow-up to both 22 Jump Street and Men In Black 3. In 2019 (around the release of Men In Black International), the film was deemed dead – but after Channing Tatum recently discussed his love for the existing script, screenwriter Rodney Rothman is keeping hope alive that it could someday see the light of day.
Rothman, who was a co-writer on 22 Jump Street, was the man assigned the task of having Channing Tatum‘s Jenko and Jonah Hill‘s Schmidt meet Will Smith‘s Agent J and Tommy Lee Jones‘ Agent K in a franchise crossover feature. It’s been a long time since the project has made any kind of meaningful moves towards production, but the filmmaker took to his personal Twitter account this week to share the cover page of his screenplay and note that “nothing is impossible.” Check out his post below:
Still a long shot, but nothing is impossible.Wanna see the rest? https://t.co/Bd8GfB3gli pic.twitter.com/ozd3El0R4HJune 25, 2024
For those who don’t recall, the 21 Jump Street series was birthed with the concept of young-looking cops going undercover in high school… but that isn’t something that is particularly sustainable for a big screen franchise (where, in the best of circumstances, each installment takes a couple of years to come together). Hence, the protagonists went to college in 22 Jump Street, and 23 Jump Street: Men In Black 4 would see them enlist in yet another institution.
Needless to say, there are a lot of question marks that surrounded the crossover idea (in 2015, 21/22 Jump Street co-director Phil Lord said that he and filmmaking partner Christopher Miller “only do things that seem like they’re going to be terrible”). One would assume that the second sequel would see Jenko and Schmidt be introduced to the Men In Black, the secret authority keeping tabs on human/extraterrestrial relations, but would they be infiltrating it as part of an undercover mission? Or would they become full-on agents enlisted by Agents K and J? And what would be the alien-centric mission that Jenko and Schmidt would be best suited for?
I would very much like to get answers to all of these questions and more, so to answer Rodney Rothman’s question, yes, I most definitely want to see the rest.
At present, the Men In Black movies are available to stream with a Hulu subscription, but neither 21 Jump Street nor 22 Jump Street are featured on any services. That being said, you can always rent or purchase the films digitally, and both are easy to find on Blu-ray.