What Men In Black: International Will Be About

Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth in Men in Black: International

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones have hung up their black suits, but the Men in Black aren't going anywhere. This summer, Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson are taking the reins of the Men in Black franchise in Men in Black: International. While we were treated to the first trailer for this spinoff last month and have known for a while who's comprising the main cast, now specific plot details have finally come out, revealing that this murder mystery is the result of a mole having infiltrated MIB.

As we saw in the Men in Black: International teaser trailer, Tessa Thompson's Agent M discovers the existence of MIB on her own, and seeing her potential, Emma Thompson's Agent O, who we met in Men in Black 3, recruits her into the organization. But just like what happened when Agent started working with Agent K, M is being thrown into the proverbial deep end of the pool for her first assignment. Her new partner, Chris Hemsworth's Agent H, is one of MIB's best agents, but who, as producer Water Parkes told EW, has "fallen on some hard times." Making matters worse, an alien emissary is killed on H's watch, requiring him and M to team up to identify the killer and track down the mole within MIB who is threatening the organization's ability to protect Earth from alien evildoers.

I'll say this about Men in Black: International, it's making sure its story isn't ripping off the previous three Men in Black movies. It would have been easy enough to do a semi/full rehash of one of Agent J and K's adventures, but the creative minds involved on this spinoff wise chose to go in a different direction with a murder mystery. There will still be aliens and laser guns aplenty, and even a few other familiar faces (like the wise-cracking Worm Guys), but just like Jurassic World did for the Jurassic Park franchise, Men in Black: International is the beginning of a new chapter of this franchise, and it needs to be able to stand on its own for new and longtime fans.

It also helps that rather than primarily being set in one city, Men in Black: International is a globe-trotting adventure, as Agents H and M will travel to London, Istanbul and Italy during their journey. It's a good reminder to moviegoers that aliens aren't just hanging out in New York City, though that's undoubtedly still a popular hub for extra terrestrial visitors.

In addition to the previously mentioned actors, Men in Black: International's cast includes Liam Neeson as head of MIB's United Kingdom branch High T, Rebecca Ferguson as the three-armed alien Riza (who's seen fighting M in the trailer), Kumain Nanjiani as the voice of an alien named Pawny, Rafe Spall and Laurent and Larry Bourgeois (a.k.a. Les Twins). The Fate of the Furious' F. Gary Gray directed and Iron Man duo Art Marcum and Matt Holloway wrote the script.

Men in Black: International opens in theaters on July 12, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for continuing coverage. Don't forget to also look through our 2019 release schedule to learn what other major motion pictures come out this year.

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.