The Next ‘Men in Black’ Will Include a Woman in Black

Late in 2014, Sony announced that they’d be mounting a crossover film uniting the diegetic universes of their flagship properties 21 Jump Street and Men In Black. It’s impossible to ignore the feeling that the aging properties are responding to contemporary trends in an effort to stay vital and profitable. But a new announcement dropped by producer Laurie Macdonald during an interview with the BBC heralds another expression of the Men In Black franchise finally catching up with the times. A little bit of gender parity in a franchise with Men right in the title has been sorely overdue, and Macdonald confirmed that a change is gonna come, openly stating, “There will be a prominent woman in black in the fourth [MIB film].”

Exciting news as this may be, Macdonald provided precious little context to flesh out its significance. She made it known that the project is still “quite early” in development but that it will also be “a reinvention” that will shift focus away between the buddy-cop dynamic between Will Smith’s Agent J and Tommy Lee Jones’ Agent K. Though Macdonald also added, “Never count Will out.”

Who’s to say what this could mean for an upcoming installment of the sci-fi comedy franchise? At this point, really only Macdonald. Without any details of the character, there’s hardly any use in speculating on which actresses might be good for the gig, too. But in the most broadly abstract terms, it’s a small but heartening step forward to see women also being represented in the universe of Men— I’m sorry, People in Black.