Summary
- Men in Black: International suffered without Will Smith, highlighting his importance to the series.
- International lacked Smith’s star power, with Agent J being the heart of the series.
- A potential Men in Black 4 with Smith returning could restore faith in the franchise after recent missteps.
There is one classic Will Smith franchise that could really use his return after the last entry underperformed. There might be several Will Smith movie franchises, but the star has had a complicated relationship with sequels. On average, he prefers to seek out fresh material, such as when he passed on returning as Deadshot in The Suicide Squad to front the biopic King Richard. Still, he has occasionally returned to a familiar character, which proved to be the right move with 2020’s Bad Boys for Life.
This marked the first entry in the Bad Boys franchise since 2003, and to the surprise of just about everyone, proved to be a big critical and commercial success. The upcoming Bad Boys: Ride of Die will mark the first major test of Smith’s star appeal following the 2022 Oscar ceremony, where he infamously slapped host Chris Rock. Smith is also still attached to a I Am Legend sequel, which will use the alternate ending where his character Neville survived.
Every Upcoming Will Smith Movie
Will Smith had a lot of new movies due until the infamous Oscar slap. Here’s every upcoming Will Smith movie and whether or not they’ll still happen.
MIB: International’s Box Office Suffered Without Will Smith
Men in Black needs Will Smith back
Men In Black: International
Starring Chris Hemsworth as Agent H and Tessa Thompson as Agent M, Men In Black: International marks a new beginning for the MiB franchise after the success of the Will Smith-led trilogy. This time, the dark-suited heroes face an infiltrated threat in the organization, which could trigger a weapon of mass destruction if they don’t act fast.
- Director
- F. Gary Gray
- Release Date
- June 14, 2019
- Cast
- Chris Hemsworth , Tessa Thompson , Jess Radomska , Liam Neeson , Emma Thompson , Les Twins , Rebecca Ferguson , Kumail Nanjiani , Rafe Spall , Stephen Wight , Viktorija Faith
- Budget
- $110 Million
Men in Black firmly cemented Will Smith’s star power in 1997, with the film being an acclaimed merging of sci-fi and comedy. Smith would return for two sequels, and while neither matched the positive reviews of the Men in Black franchise’s debut, they were still sizable hits. The production of Men in Black 3 was a troubled one, with the threequel starting filming with only the first act written, and its complicated production timeline saw the budget swell to over $200 million.
There was a palpable lack of excitement for Men in Black: International when it finally arrived, with the spinoff grossing a disappointing $253 million worldwide. There are a myriad of reasons the film doesn’t work, but its underperformance proved that the series needs Smith to work.
The next entry was Men in Black: International, a spinoff fronted by Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. Neither Tommy Lee Jones nor Will Smith returned for this sequel, with the fourth outing trying to capture the same spark Thompson and Hemsworth had in Thor: Ragnarok. Instead, International was another messy shoot, where director F. Gary Gray was said to have clashed with co-producer Walter F. Parkes (via THR), with the latter exerting heavy creative control over the film. Parkes demanded rewrites that greatly altered the draft that the director and stars had signed up for too.
Gray even tried to leave the project, but was talked into staying on by Sony. There was a palpable lack of excitement for Men in Black: International when it finally arrived, with the spinoff grossing a disappointing $253 million worldwide. There are a myriad of reasons the film doesn’t work, but its underperformance proved that the series needs Smith to work. Agent J is the character who leads viewers through the chaos of the Men in Black saga, and International lacked the heart that Will Smith brought to the series.
Another sequel Will Smith backed out of was
Independence Day: Resurgence
, which he exited to make David Ayer’s
Suicide Squad
instead.
Will Smith’s $1 Billion Movie In 2019 Made Men In Black’s Struggles Worse
Smith scored a significant win over MiB: International in 2019
It almost felt a given that International would be a disappointment, especially when word of its production woes came out. Making matters worse is that Men in Black: International was released shortly after Will Smith’s rival blockbuster, Aladdin. Guy Ritchie’s live-action remake of the Disney animated classic grossed $1.054 billion, despite Aladdin’s Rotten Tomatoes rating being rather tepid. While live-action Disney remakes are practically guaranteed to make money, it was a bad look for International that it went up against a new Smith movie and only made about a quarter of its gross.
The Men in Black franchise is ripe with potential, so there is nothing to say a spinoff couldn’t have worked. Sadly, International was a lifeless retread that took the wrong approach, and there was little its leads could do to paper over its flaws. Aladdin wasn’t even a particularly good movie, but it still completely overshadowed the fourth Men in Black, which has already been largely forgotten.
Why Men In Black 4 Starring Will Smith Hasn’t Happened Yet
Apparently, Agent J’s story was finished with Men in Black 3
With Ride or Die, Smith has essentially marked Bad Boys as his favorite series. To date, it’s the franchise he’s made the most appearances in, and if he had been open to a fourth Men in Black, it’s doubtful the producers would have blocked his return. Even so, during an interview with Digital Spy in 2019, co-producer Laurie MacDonald opened up about why Men in Black 4 with Smith and Jones didn’t happen.
When we finished the third, we did all talk about the fact that we that we didn’t feel there was another film. It was actually in different terms: so we all talked about it feeling very complete, that somehow because the third dealt with the mystery of Will’s father – it felt emotionally complete.
According to MacDonald, there was a question of whether the franchise itself would continue. Of course, there was famously talk of doing a franchise crossover called MiB 23, where Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill’s Jump Street characters would become Men in Black agents. This was scrapped in favor of International. If Ride or Die is a success, perhaps Men in Black 4 with Smith is a possibility, and could even feature the older Agent J mentoring a younger co-star, flipping the character’s journey from the first outing.
Men in Black 4 with Smith and (hopefully) Jones returning would restore audiences’ faith in the series. There is no sign of another sequel happening yet, but given Hollywood’s reliance on IPs, producers will circle back to it at some point. Whether Smith is interested enough to return once again is another question entirely.
Source: THR, Rotten Tomatoes, Digital Spy