'21 Jump Street' And 'Men In Black' Crossover Is Dead

Back in 2014, when one of the biggest stories of the year was a huge hack of sensitive information from Sony Pictures, details on a potential crossover between the 21 Jump Street and Men in Black franchises came to light. In the years since, updates have been sparse with the exception of a title reveal calling the movie MiB 23. Unfortunately, the odds weren't looking too good for the wild idea when Jonah Hill called the possibility of the sequel "kind of impossible," and it turns out he was probably right.

Men in Black franchise producer Walter Parkes was recently asked about the chances of seeing Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum throwing on the suits and shades for the potentially incredible crossover, and his response confirms that the 21 Jump Street Men in Black crossover is dead in the water.

Speaking to Empire Magazine (via Yahoo UK), Walter Parkes only had this to say about MiB 23:

"We gave it a shot. It turned out to be an impossible match-up."

That echoes what Jonah Hill said back in August of 2016:

"I doubt that movie will get made. They're trying to make all the deals, but it's kind of impossible with all the Men in Black stuff. The Jump Street films were so fun to make and the whole joke of them was they were making fun of remakes and sequels and reboots and then now it's become a giant sequel, reboot. It's almost become what we were making fun of and it's hard to maintain that joke when it's so high stakes."

While the prospect of the franchise crossover did sound like an awesome idea, Jonah Hill's concerns are valid. One of the best things about the 21 Jump Street is how it made fun of big screen reboots of TV shows and sequels while still keeping some real stakes and never getting too ridiculous. And that would get hard with a crossover like this.

This is the most official word we've gotten that this project won't be moving forward, but after four years, there wasn't much hope that it would actually happen. After all, there's already a reboot of Men in Black coming that also acts as a sequel to the original franchise with Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson being part of Men in Black International. Plus, we've also heard about a 21 Jump Street reboot that may focus on Tiffany Haddish and Awkwafina as two female undercover cops instead with a whole new character dynamic.

Maybe some day we'll learn some more details about MiB 23. There has to be a draft of a script out there somewhere, and if anyone has it, we'd surely love to read it.