Female-Driven ’21 Jump Street’ Spinoff Still in the Works

It sounds like one continuation of the 21 Jump Street franchise still could become a reality.

Variety recently published a report about Sony greenlighting a third Bad Boys movie, in which some of the studio’s other nostalgia-driven projects were also mentioned. In addition to referencing Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth’s Men in Black spinoff and the upcoming Charlie’s Angels reboot, the article mentioned that Sony is “hard at work” developing a female-centric 21 Jump Street spinoff.

“We think that there’s something fun about keeping that irreverent spirit of Jump Street, but maybe having it be told through a female undercover cop point-of-view,” Columbia Pictures president Sanford Panitch said in the interview. “We’ve had enough male buddy comedies. The script is really funny and has a freshness to it.”

For fans of the franchise, this will surely be a bit of a surprise, as it seemed like any possible spinoffs for 21 Jump Street were being put on hold. At one point in time, a Men in Black and 21 Jump Street crossover was in the works, but it seems like the idea has since been abandoned.

“I had the idea,” Jonah Hill, who starred in the first two Jump Street films with Channing Tatum, said back in 2016. “But I doubt that movie will get made.”

“It’s too complicated,” Hill continued. “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.”

According to Variety, the focus has since shifted to “finding the right female comedians to send back to high school with badges”. A script for the female-led spinoff has been in development since 2016, with Rodney Rothman set to write and direct.

“The north star for us is wanting our movies to feel different, not done before, not recycled,” Panitch explained. “Because of the volume of streaming content out there and television content, we spend a lot of time around here talking about a movie’s theatricality and making sure we believe it achieves cinema worthiness.”

Are you excited that the female-led 21 Jump Street spinoff could still happen? Let us know what you think in the comments below.