The series of imagined sequels plastered on-screen at the end of 22 Jump Street was a pretty savvy conceit: while the whole film itself is a take-down of tired, jaded and needless follow-ups, that final spray really nailed the ability of movie studios to pull sagas out of the proverbial.
Not included among 24 Jump Street: Foreign Exchange Students or 29 Jump Street: Sunday School? 23 Jump Street: Men In Black, which, stunningly, looks like it’s actually happening. For real.
Variety reports that although the idea was unleashed during the infamous Sony hack of 2015, the project now truly-duly has a director attached to it. James Bobin, who helmed The Muppets and Alice Through The Looking Glass has been given the dubious honour of smashing the two worlds together – if the project gets the final all-clear.
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum should be back as themselves Schmidt and Jenko, but Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are steering clear of the whole thing. That might be a good thing for nostalgia’s sake, but it also means none of the film’s inevitably bro-ey conflicts will be resolved with a Fresh Price / Ice Cube rap battle.
The whole thing has come about due to the studio’s apparent lack of a cash-cow franchise, which is exactly the sort of cynical production ethos the Jump Street films have been poking at since 2012. Production might be going ahead as of June. No word yet on whether they’ll retract 22‘s snarky credits sequence, though.
