23 Jump Street

Jenko and Schmidt may not battle aliens after all.

They’ve already got the sunglasses! They’re gonna need to work on those uniforms though. Fewer board shorts, more black suits.

It was over a year ago that the massive Sony hack revealed plans for a Jump Street-Men in Black crossover movie, and while it wasn’t entirely clear, we sort of assumed this would happen in 23 Jump Street. Interesting? Sure. Exciting? Well, maybe. With Phil Lord and Chris Miller busy prepping the young Han Solo movie, we’ve retained some healthy skepticism about this wacky crossover plan. But it looks like Sony has found a director to renew our optimism.

We’ve known for some time now that original Jump Street writing / directing duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller would be involved with 23 Jump Street, but given their increasingly busy schedules, it seemed less and less likely that they’d find time to direct it. Turns out that’s definitely the case, as the pair will merely be involved as producers on the upcoming sequel.

For a while now, we’ve been hearing about this proposed Men in Black/Jump Street crossover movie. And just yesterday it was reported that Sony wants to make a female-driven Jump Street as well, utilizing a pair of writers from the brilliant and hilarious Broad City. Development on both of these ambitious projects has now been confirmed, so get ready to see Jump Street expand its universe in ways we never imagined.

Sony is quickly becoming the home of the all-female version of a popular male-centric franchise. They’ve already got their woman-driven reboot of Ghostbusters with the all-star (and all-lady) cast of Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon, and now, per The Tracking Board, they’re adding a 21 Jump Street spinoff that will center on the fairer sex.

22 Jump Street might have the funniest end-credits sequence ever, in which directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller effectively ran the franchise into the ground with a series of fake sequels, including Flight School, Medical School and Art School, just to name a few. Here was a sequel no one thought could measure up to a movie no one thought could be that good, and Lord and Miller played on the notion of endless sequels with increasingly absurd ideas to extend their franchise, satisfying studio and fan demands. And now those fake sequels will officially become part of Jump Street cannon for 23 Jump Street.

We mostly assumed that a ‘23 Jump Street’ movie would never happen. Where could you possibly go after the lunacy of the ‘22 Jump Street’ end credits that joked at the idea of horrible sequels up until ‘43 Jump Street’ (subtitled “Mariachi School”). Then came reports late last year of an idea so insane that it might actually work: crossing over ‘23 Jump Street’ and ‘Men in Black’. It was so insane, in fact, that a lot of people thought it wasn’t real. But, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller promise that it’s very real and that they’re currently developing the project at Sony.

‘23 Jump Street’ is a sequel that is surely happening, this despite all the many hilarious sequel jokes during the ‘22 Jump Street’ end credits. The franchise is just too popular to let die. But, how exactly would you sequelize ‘22 Jump Street’, which did a pretty effective job of sending up sequel cliches? Well, you send Jenko and Schmidt to the Men in Black program, of course.

It may take a little more convincing to get Channing Tatum on board with this whole '23 Jump Street' idea. The end credits for '22 Jump Street' cleverly satirized Hollywood's obsession with milking franchises to the bitter end, seemingly a message from the writers and directors that they wouldn't be back for a third round -- that was, until the recent announcement that Sony is making a third film with directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller producing. But will Tatum be back for more?