Even though the last Men in Black movie was only released in 2012, a reboot of the sci-fi comedy franchise is on the way. With original stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones no longer involved in the series, the new movie will reunite Thor: Ragnarok stars Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson in the lead roles. The movie is set to start shooting this month, and we have some more casting news.
As reported by Empire, Kumail Nanjiani and Rafe Spall will join the cast. Nanjiani is best known for his role in HBO’s comedy Silicon Valley and the movie The Big Sick, while Spall has appeared in films such as Prometheus and the Netflix horror movie The Ritual. While Spall’s role is currently unknown, the site reports that Nanjiani will play a “wise-cracking extra-terrestrial.”
Empire also provided some more details about the two main characters. Hemsworth’s Agent H is “a suave, slightly goofy British MIB officer,” while Thompson will play Molly, a civilian who “knows aliens exists and aims to join the organisation.”
The new Men in Black is reportedly not a remake but will take a place in the same universe as the earlier films. It is set to be directed by F. Gary Gray, who helmed last year’s blockbuster The Fate of the Furious, as well as the hip-hop biopic Straight Outta Compton, and hits theaters on June 14, 2019.
Back in 2016, it was rumored that Sony was looking to reboot Men in Black as a crossover movie with its other comedy franchise, the Jump Street movies. There has been little news about this project since, although Deadline did state earlier this year that it remains in development at the studio.
All three original Men in Black movies were big box-office hits. Although the third movie was not as well received critically as the first two, it still made $624 million at the worldwide box office. In total, the whole series has made more than $1.6 billion.