A New Men In Black Movie Is In Development, But The Big Question Surrounding Will Smith Concerns Me

Will Smith wearing sunglasses as Agent J in Men in Black
(Image credit: Sony Pictures)

The Men in Black film series has had a sporadic release schedule, to say the least. Men in Black 2 followed five years after its predecessor’s release in 1997, Men in Black 3 came 10 years later, and then Men in Black: International hit theaters in 2019. The franchise has remained in limbo ever since that last movie, which starred Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, bombed critically and commercially. Today, however, brings work that a new Men in Black movie is in the works, though it comes with a big question surrounding Will Smith, one of the franchise’s original two leads.

As reported by Deadline, Sony Pictures is looking to bring Men in Black back by having Bad Boys for Life writer Chris Bremner pen the next movie. Although no onscreen talent is attached to what I’ll call Men in Black 5 for now, the publication has heard from insiders that once Bremner has finished writing the script, Will Smith will read through it. The plan for now is, at least in this first draft, for Smith to reprise Agent J, though it’s unclear if this will be in a leading or supporting capacity. Other sources stressed that Smith is not officially attached to Men in Black 5 right now and won’t commit to anything until he’s read Bremner’s script.

Like I mentioned, Will Smith has previously collaborated with Chris Bremner on the aforementioned 2020 Bad Boys movie and its follow-up, last year’s Bad Boys: Ride or Die. So it should be no issue for Smith to look at Bremner’s first go at Men in Black 5, but then what happens from there? Does the Agent J actor merely give any notes that come to mind, but ultimately sign on to the project? Or is it possible that Smith won’t vibe with whatever story Bremner has written and decide not to return to the Men in Black franchise after all?

More to come…

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.