‘Men In Black’ Getting A Remake, Not A Sequel — Will Smith Is Out

For anyone and everyone that was looking forward to another film of Will Smith battling aliens, it was already ruled out for Independence Day 2, and now is out for another Men In Black film too. It has now been said that Men In Black will not be getting a fourth film as far as sequels go, but the next movie will be a remake and Will Smith is not going to be in it.

Collider is reporting that the remake/reboot of Men In Black is coming from Sony again and that things are going back to the very beginning. This means there will be no confusion or problems with continuity or matching up with what happened in the first three films.

The Hollywood Reporter was able to catch up with producers Laurie MacDonald and Walter Parkes during the Toronto International Film Festival 2015, and a number of topics were discussed. One of those was the Men In Black reboot that is already in the works from Sony.

Making matters better is that the reboot won’t be a one-and-done as it’s going to be another trilogy. The duo of Parkes and MacDonald were on board for each of the first three films in the original trilogy, and even the animated series.

Parkes said that “We’re in the middle of it (reviving the franchise). It’s very active.” From that point, it was simply asked if Will Smith was going to be a part of it, and both producers were very straightforward and to the point.

Parkes said, “Most likely no,” and MacDonald followed up with “It will be reinvented as a trilogy.”

A number of things are still not known about the new Men In Black trilogy and that’s if Tommy Lee Jones will be a part of it as Agent K. It doesn’t seem as if he will be in it if it’s being reinvented and starting over. That pretty much means that Josh Brolin, young Agent K, is likely not going to be in it either.

Brolin’s one and only appearance in the trilogy was in Men In Black III.

Now, the other big question is whether or not the rumored and proposed crossover between Men In Black and 21 Jump Street will ever happen. It could end up being a part of the new trilogy, or Sony may have ended up scrapping it entirely once new plans were developed for the reboot.

The 21 Jump Street female spinoff may still end up happening as Collider reported before the summer. If that franchise is going to continue though, it’s going to take place without a battle between the teams of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum vs. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.

Tommy Lee Jones is 69 years old and staying busy with plenty of work on his own anyway. He’s going to be part of the next Jason Bourne film and just finished Criminal and Mechanic: Resurrection. Will Smith recently finished work on Suicide Squad and has a few other projects to work on, including the rumored Bad Boys 3 and Bad Boys 4 sequels.

The first Men In Black was released back in 1997 with the sequel following it up in 2002. A full 10 years passed before Men In Black III was released in 2012, and critics weren’t overly fond of it and didn’t think it worked really well.

Now, Men In Black will be coming back to life with all of the fun gadgets, toys, guns, and hopefully the noisy cricket gun. The reboot/remake of Men In Black will get the full trilogy treatment and it won’t have Will Smith anywhere to be seen, but don’t rule out Tommy Lee Jones just yet.

[Images via IMPAwards/Sony]