Lord and Miller Discuss the ‘Men in Black’ and ‘Jump Street’ Crossover That Almost Was

Way back in 2014, it was originally reported that Sony had considered a pitch from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller that would have combined the worlds of the Men In Black and Jump Street franchises. The first time it came to light was in the wake of the Sony hack, when emails from the company’s CEOs were released to the public.

Since then, there haven’t been many discussions about the crossover, with the writing and directing duo of Lord & Miller staying quiet on the subject overall. As reported on Collider, Lord & Miller recently opened up about the once potential crossover on the Happy.Sad.Confused podcast.

In 2014, 22 Jump Street had a mid-credits gag that showed Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill’s characters going through a series of crazy unmade sequels. One of those sequels was the catalyst for the crossover idea. Lord fleshed out what the idea would have been on the podcast:

“It’s true that there have been a lot of these things developed. There was, believe it or not, a Men In Black/Jump Street crossover script that was very funny and very crazy that we really adored. Basically, the idea was Jonah and Channing, a thing happened while they were doing their medical school adventure that got them embroiled into the world of Men In Black, and that got them teaming up to stop an alien takeover type of thing. It was very funny; it was crazy trying to manage these two franchises and not drive them both into the ground seemed like a real challenge.”

We can only imagine the hijinks that would have ensued from such a crossover. While Lord & Miller stated that Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones were not expected to have been a part of the film, the crossover could have helped breathe new life into the all but stagnant Men In Black franchise.

Instead, Sony went in a different direction with Men In Black: International in 2019. Despite having the star power of Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, it opened to mediocre reviews and box office. Maybe a heavy comedy-leaning soft reboot of the series would have been the way to go, but the world may never know.