Men In Black Movie: Will There Be Another Movie?
A fifth Men in Black movie is reportedly in the works, but it hasn't been confirmed by Sony.
Named for a popular 20th century conspiracy theory, and loosely adapting the plot of a Marvel comic series, the Men In Black films have been dazzling and delighting audiences since the first installment hit the big screen in 1997. With four films in the franchise and a host of speculation regarding the future of the series, the question plaguing the minds of fans across the galaxy is: Will there ever be another Men In Black movie? Allegedly, there is a fifth film in development, which isn’t slated to hit theaters until at least 2027, though the details on active production are murky at best.
In the years following Men In Black: International, there have been many talks of reviving the franchise, with the expectation that Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones will not be reprising their roles. However, there have been some recent reports that suggest Columbia Pictures are planning on producing a fifth installment of the Men In Black film series, with Will Smith signed on to star.
If a fifth film does see the light of day, perhaps Tommy Lee Jones could appear in a brief cameo appearance, if only to provide a nod to the audience that the events of the first three films are still canon within the cinematic universe.
The first Men In Black film stars Will Smith alongside veteran actor Tommy Lee Jones, as a pair of secret agents working for an international system of undocumented government spies.
This agency’s sole purpose is handling the immigration and regulation of alien life on Earth, and the intergalactic ramifications therein. Jones’ Agent Kay is tasked with hiring and training Smith’s Agent Jay after witnessing the careful critical thinking skills utilized by Jay during a routine police interaction.
1997’s Men In Black was an instant hit with audiences due to the cast’s incredible chemistry, the excellently woven blend of sci-fi and humor, and the Oscar-worthy performance by a young Vincent D’Onofrio as a space roach in an Edgar suit. The film’s impeccable soundtrack and distinct visual style left fans begging for more, resulting in a nearly perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 91 percent.
Though the 2002 sequel failed to leave the same impression, clocking in at only 38 percent on the review aggregate website, it retained elements of the original film, which maintained the cult status of the franchise for years to come.
After several years of radio silence from the team behind the Men In Black films, a third installment hit theaters in 2012, a full decade after Men In Black 2. Unlike the first two films, Men In Black 3 did not follow the ongoing plot of Jay and Kay as they slay alien evildoers seeking to wreak havoc across the galaxy together.
Instead, the third film follows a time travel plot that sees Will Smith’s Agent Jay going back in time to meet a young Agent Kay, played by Josh Brolin, in order to prevent an assault which fractures the space-time continuum as we know it.
While the third film was hailed as a return to form for the Men In Black franchise, it still never reached the critical acclaim of the 1997 original. Additionally, Tommy Lee Jones had all but aged out of the role, leaving the chances of a fourth installment continuing the story of Jay and Kay difficult to imagine from a production standpoint.
In 2014, the Sony email hack revealed that there were talks of a Men In Black reboot, which was set to bring on a new cast and crossover with the Phil Lord and Chris Miller-led 21 Jump Street films, starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, though the film was scrapped in the early stages of pre-production.
2019 saw the release of the most recent Men In Black film to date, titled Men In Black: International. Unfortunately, despite the excellent chemistry of Thor: Ragnarok co-stars Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, the film seemed to fall flat at every turn, flailing as a box office bomb, and all but tanking any chances of reviving the franchise with these new characters.
The film holds a series low 23 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critical consensus stating, “Amiable yet forgettable, MiB International grinds its stars’ substantial chemistry through the gears of a franchise running low on reasons to continue.
