Everything You Need to Know About the Unmade Men in Black Movies
From a return for Agent J and K to a Jump Street crossover, here's what we know about the unmade MIB movies.

Beginning with the beloved 1997 original, the Men in Black franchise has become one of the most beloved in sci-fi for its signature blend of wild action and sharp comedy.
The series spans a trilogy of films (Men in Black, Men in Black II, and Men in Black 3 are now streaming on Peacock) featuring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, as well as a standalone sequel, 2019’s Men in Black International starring Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson.
However, beyond those four films, over the decades, there were a few planned MIB movies that never saw the light of day. Here’s everything you need to know about the unmade Men in Black sequels.
Is Men in Black 4 in the works?
Technically, there is a fourth Men in Black movie, 2019’s International. However, in this context, Men in Black 4 refers to a hypothetical fourth movie with Smith and Jones, following up 2012’s Men in Black 3. From all accounts, a Men in Black 4 was in the works, but got stuck in development hell, and hasn’t seen the light of day.
Following the success of Men in Black 3, Smith, Jones, and Barry Sonnenfeld, director of the first three films, said in interviews that they would consider returning for a fourth. Head of Columbia Pictures Doug Belgrad told the Hollywood Reporter that summer that a fourth MIB film was planned. The next year, The Wrap reported that screenwriter Oren Uziel (22 Jump Street, The Cloverfield Paradox, Fast X) was working on a script for Men in Black 4. However, there was no further word on Uziel’s script, and over a decade later, we haven’t seen another Men in Black installment with the original duo.
The top-secret plans for a Men in Black crossover with the Jump Street series
In late 2014, Sony Pictures suffered a massive data leak at the hands of a hacker group known as Guardians of Peace. Massive amounts of internal data, from emails to salaries to copies of films and screenplays were leaked publicly. The U.S. government concluded that the Guardians of Peace had been sponsored by the government of North Korea, as retaliation against the studio for producing the film The Interview, a comedy film starring James Franco and Seth Rogen as American reporters who are hired to interview, then assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (Randall Park). The North Korean government denied direct involvement, and some cybersecurity experts have put forward the theory that the hack was an inside job by disgruntled employees, a theory Rogen also backed.
Regardless of who carried out the hack, the leaked internal documents and emails put an unprecedented amount of information about the internal workings of a major movie studio into the public eye, including films that were in development. One major revelation from the hacked emails was that Sony was considering a crossover between Men in Black and the Jump Street franchise, following their then-recent hits 21 Jump Street and 22 Jump Street.
In a leaked email to Sony Pictures head Amy Pascal, Jump Street star Jonah Hill called the idea “clean and rad and powerful.” The proposed film would not feature Smith or Jones, except potentially in a cameo capacity, and would instead center on Hill and co-star Channing Tatum as undercover cops Schmidt and Janko crossing paths with and joining the Men in Black agency.
In 2016, momentum seemed to be gaining on the project, with the title officially announced as MIB 23, and director James Bobin (The Muppets, Alice Through the Looking Glass) attached to direct. Despite this announcement, in August of that same year, Hill told The Toronto Sun, “I doubt that movie will get made.”
After years without updates, in January 2019, as Men in Black: International was getting ready to release that summer, producer Walter Parkes confirmed that the Jump Street crossover was no longer happening.
Just last year, while doing press for Fly Me to the Moon, Tatum commented again on the unproduced film, calling the film’s screenplay, written by Rodney Rothman, “the best script that I’ve ever read for a third [Jump Street] movie.” Tatum laid the film’s demise on “a lot of bureaucracy,” saying, “I would love to do it with Jonah.”
On its face, the crossover isn’t the most ludicrous thing in the world. The Jump Street films are, like the MIB films, also action comedies centered on a likeable duo, and the project had momentum behind it, with stars, a writer, and a director all on board. In the end, the project’s demise related to the kind of behind-the-scenes negotiations most of us fans don’t get to be privy to.
Will there be a Men in Black 5?
2019’s Men in Black International was a comparative disappointment for the series, receiving overall negative reviews and grossing a disappointing $253 million worldwide against a budget of around $100 million, the least of any MIB film. Following its release, a sequel was not announced, and rumors began to fly about the future of the franchise.
In November 2019, entertainment site We Got This Covered reported that they’d heard from anonymous sources that a fifth Men in Black film was being discussed at Sony. This film would theoretically bring back Smith and Jones alongside International leads Hemsworth and Thompson. Rumors and whispers continue to circulate to this day, but as of January 2025, we have no official news on a new MIB film.
Six years since Men in Black International and 13 since Men in Black 3, it’s unclear what, if anything the future holds for the MIB franchise. Perhaps an exciting new installment is in the works, or maybe we’ll just have to appreciate the films we already have. But regardless, the MIB films have made their mark as one of the most beloved series in sci-fi.
Men in Black, Men in Black II, and Men in Black 3 are now streaming on Peacock!