Men in Black/21 Jump Street: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller on the crossover that never happened

It may seem unlikely, but once upon a time there was the very real attempt at developing a crossover between the Men in Black and 21 Jump Street franchises. The crossover obviously didn’t move forward, but Phil Lord and Christopher Miller opened up about the project while speaking with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.

“There was, believe it or not, a Men In Black/Jump Street crossover script that was very funny and very crazy that we really adored,” Christopher Miller said. “The idea was that Jonah and Channing, a thing happened while they were doing their medical school adventure that got them embroiled into the world of Men in Black, and they ended up teaming up to stop an alien takeover type of thing. It was very funny, it was very crazy trying to manage these two franchises and not drive them both into the ground seemed like a real challenge.” Phil Lord added that one of his favourite ideas from the Men in Black/21 Jump Street crossover was that the “black suits were like martial arts belts that you had to work your way up to black, and [Hill & Tatum] were issued powder blue Men in Black suits.” Although the crossover “came very close to happening,” it was ultimately scrapped and we got Men in Black: International instead. Thanks.

Channing Tatum also recently chimed in regarding the Men in Black/21 Jump Street crossover while speaking with Collider. Tatum said that the reason the project didn’t happen was the great difficulty in re-negotiating contracts with all the producers involved in both franchises, but he still thinks it could happen. “I still think it could work, I really do,” Tatum said. “And if Sony would ever really, like, I think do the hard work and figure out the producer problems that are inherent with that film, I think we can still do it. But right now, I don’t know why, they’re just not motivated to do it. It’s a big overhead on that movie, so.” Tatum also teased that MiB 23 was “by and away the best third sequel to any franchise that I’ve ever read, in my entire life.” I’m intrigued.

What you still like to see the Men in Black/21 Jump Street crossover or is it better left alone?