14 years after the iconic 1980s television series got a feature film reboot, 21 Jump Street is getting third installment. According to Variety, 24 Jump Street is officially in the works with stars Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, and Ice Cube all in talks to return. The crime comedy threequel will be directed by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’s Rodney Rothman. Rothman also penned the script along with Hill and Meghan Malloy. Phil Lord and Chris Miller are also set to return as producers.
Videos by ComicBook.com
24 Jump Street will make the third installment of the overall Jump Street franchise which also includes 2012’s 21 Jump Street and 2014’s 22 Jump Street. But while conventional wisdom would suggest that a third film would be called 23 Jump Street, there was at one point a version of that film that has since been scrapped, one that was designed as a crossover with Men in Black.
Will 21 Jump Street’s Stars Actually Return for the Threequel?
While Hill, Tatum, and Ice Cube are reported to all be in talks to return for a third film in the 21 Jump Street franchise, it will be very interesting to see if they actually do return. Tatum in particular has previously expressed his doubts about returning for a third film, even telling USA Today back in 2014 that he felt like a third film would be a “cop-out” because the second film had been a natural progression, one where the running joke just got bigger.
“The big running joke of the second movie is this is just going to be bigger … than the first time,” he said at the time. “I don’t know if that joke works three times, so we’ll see.”
However, with so much time having passed since 22 Jump Street, there could be a lot of opportunity for a solid and hilarious continuation of the story. Nostalgia in general has been big for Hollywood in recent years, and there is also something about older characters getting into unexpected situations that has its entertainment charm. And while we don’t yet have any details about what is planned for 24 Jump Street, that particular brand of charm would be very fitting for the franchise. 21 Jump Street followed Morton Schmidt (Hill) and Greg Jenko (Tatum), two police officers who have to relive the high school experience after getting the assignment to stop the proliferation of a new synthetic drug and arrest its supplier. The sequel saw the duo take their undercover work (and antics) to college to go after a drug supplier there, too.
While the characters wouldn’t necessarily be able to do their usual undercover at a school routine, there could be plenty of other opportunities for them to have to hilariously pretend to be something and someone they’re not, especially if the film leaned into the two characters having aged. That in particular is an angle that would preserve some of the humor of the first films but also give the movie something new and interesting—and might just be enough to bring the original cast back.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
