Channing Tatum has broken down the reasons fans haven’t seen a third entry in the 21 Jump Street franchise, and the main one seems to come down to money. 2012’s 21 Jump Street was a surprise hit with critics and audiences, starring Tatum and Jonah Hill in a comedic spin on the popular television show. A sequel, 22 Jump Street, was released in 2014 and was another hit, but since then, the property has been on ice with no return in sight.
“I get asked more about Jump Street 3 than any other movie on the face of the planet that I’ve ever done,” said Tatum in an interview with Variety. According to the actor, the biggest hold-up is the budget, specifically producer fees. Tatum says he, Hill, and the original directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, have agreed to lower fees, but franchise producer Neal H. Moritz is the sticking point. Tatum said:
“I don’t think it’ll ever happen. The problem is the overhead. It would cost as much as the actual budget of the film, if not more, because of all the producers involved. It’s just too top-heavy. It falls over every time. Neal’s price for a producer fee is huge. And to be honest, that’s what’s killing it.”
Why ’23 Jump Street’ Never Happened
Neal H. Mortiz is a prolific producer, best known for his work on the Fast & Furious, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Sonic the Hedgehog franchises. He’s also the founder of Original Films, a production company that’s worked closely with Seth Rogen, producing television series like the various entries in the Boys franchise. Mortiz can clearly command a major payday, but the cost clearly makes a third Jump Street movie with Tatum and Hill too expensive a prospect, particularly as theatrical comedies have struggled in recent years.
With 21 Jump Street making $201 million and 22 Jump Street making $331 million at the worldwide box office, Sony Pictures was likely very eager to move forward with a third entry. The studio famously wanted to do a crossover with the Men in Black franchise called MiB 23, which would have seen Tatum’s character Jenko and Hill’s character Smit recruited into the Men in Black. Tatum called it “still the best script that I’ve ever read for a third movie.” In a leaked email from the 2014 Sony Pictures hack, Hill said the idea of combining Men in Black with Jump Street was “clean and rad and powerful.”
Sony’s inability to move forward with the proposed Men in Black/21 Jump Street crossover eventually led to the box office flop Men in Black International. Meanwhile, Sony has attempted relaunches of Jump Street without Hill and Tatum. The first was a female-centric spin-off written by Bob’s Burgers writers Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin, which would have been titled Jump Street: Now for Her Pleasure in 2020, yet no update has been made since. In 2023, it was reported that Brie Larson would reprise her role as Molly Tracey from 21 Jump Street for a spinoff film, but that project has also gone silent. It’s clear that the 21 Jump Street franchise is stuck in development hell, and until the producers reach an agreement, it’ll remain that way indefinitely.
- Release Date
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March 14, 2012
- Runtime
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109 minutes