23 Jump Street may be aiming high with its multiversal plot but Hollywood just can’t figure out a way to say ‘Yes!’

Of all the haplessly unoriginal sequels, prequels, reboots, and remakes that have made our eyes and ears bleed out of sheer resentment, the world could have done us all a little favor and manifested the wildly overdue 23 Jump Street. However, Hollywood is not the first place where bureaucracy moseys itself over to stand in the way of creative vision.

21 Jump Street [Credit: Columbia Pictures/MGM]

Now, Jonah Hill has moved on from classic cult comedies (Superbad, This is the End) to “serious” cinema (The Wolf of Wall Street, Stutz), and Channing Tatum has resorted to turning himself a Hollywood oddball by appearing for 2-second cameos in major blockbuster films (Free Guy, Kingsman: The Golden Circle). Meanwhile, the long-awaited sequel to 22 Jump Street lingers in development hell.

23 Jump Street Awaits Its Glorious Debut

During the infamous 2014 hack of Sony Pictures that witnessed one of the Big Six’s (now, Big Five after the annexation of 20th Century Studios) swift fall from grace, a roster containing all the projects in development at the studio was released along with other more confidential (and scandalous) files.

Among the list was 23 Jump Street, or rather MiB23 – a bizarre co-ord spawn of the Men in Black franchise and the classic Jonah Hill–Channing Tatum buddy cop movies. Without a doubt, Will Smith‘s sci-fi action flick would be one of the most unexpected places for Schmidt and Jenko to land in their zany efforts to befriend teenagers and bust their diabolical drug rings.

Men in Black (1997) [Credit: Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures]

The classic Phil Lord and Christopher Miller comedy franchise remains one of the rare Hollywood gems that fail to fall short on a third or fourth viewing. More importantly, the Jump Street movies do not fall into the trappings of cancel culture that so many classics, including FRIENDS, have stumbled into.

This not only makes the threequel all the more enticing but also a sure-fire cash-out for Sony which has recently suffered more than necessary in their efforts to rival the MCU with their bumbling and inadequate Sony Spider-Man Universe.

Jump Street Heads to the Men in Black Universe

Since the high-profile hack by the group unironically known as the Guardians of Peace, the sequel has lagged under development with no confirmation regarding being greenlit. But whether there is any direct correlation between the tech invasion and the Tatum-Hill sequel remains to be deciphered.

However, according to Channing Tatum, the demand for 23 Jump Street remains at an all-time high, along with the two lead stars ready to jump on board at any given moment in their busy A-list-worthy careers. In a recent interview with ComicBook.com, the actor confirmed the same in so many words: “There is a project that was written and it’s still the best script that I’ve ever read for a third movie.”

But when something ticks all the right categories and sounds too good to be true, it usually is. In the case of 23 Jump Street, the “catch” (so to speak) is the ambitious goal of the Lord & Miller IP to head into Will Smith’s Men in Black universe. Considering the iconic nature of the latter, it’s no surprise that the studio would be cautious before green-lighting the project that could kill 2 blockbuster franchises with 1 stone.

23 Jump Street Falls Into Its Own Trappings

Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill in 21 Jump Street [Credit: Columbia Pictures/MGM]

With everything going in the right direction, the only cause for the unusually long stalling from the studio’s side can only be because of two reasons – the conflict regarding bringing a well-established franchise and all its partisans on board with the idea, or, a snag in development that has landed the project in a situation similar to what Marvel’s Blade is currently going through.

Considering how unapologetically hilarious, commercially successful, and critically beloved the Tatum-Hill movies have been, it’s hard to believe that Sony would stand in its own way for a third movie. But, a studio still needs to be bureaucratic in its modus operandi, and as such, has made the self-aware, semi-meta, lovably dorky Hollywood parody IP into a target of its own vicious double-edged sword.

Jonah Hill confirmed in a 2016 interview:

They’re trying to make all the deals, but it’s kind of impossible with all the Men in Black stuff. The Jump Street films were so fun to make and the whole joke of them was they were making fun of remakes and sequels and reboots and then now it’s become a giant sequel, reboot. It’s almost become what we were making fun of and it’s hard to maintain that joke when it’s so high stakes.

With Will Smith wielding enough power to headline a Bad Boys sequel even in his bad boy Oscars era, a third Jump Street film with Smith and Tommy Lee Jones does not seem like a terrible idea. After all, it couldn’t be much worse than the Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thomson remake, and if Sony could let that obnoxious script pass the smell test, it sure seems fishy that 23 Jump Street is instead allowed to rot in the vaults.

21 Jump Street and 22 Jump Street are available to buy/stream on Prime Video and Apple TV.