Will Smith may soon be dusting off his black suit and shades as Sony Pictures looks to reboot the Men in Black franchise with the actor back in the mix.
The studio has enlisted Bad Boys for Life screenwriter Chris Bremner to draft a new installment, hoping to reignite the sci-fi series by banking on Smith’s recent box office rebound. The decision follows Smith’s theatrical comeback with Bad Boys: Ride or Die, which pulled in $56 million in its June 2024 opening weekend. It marked his first major release since the 2022 Oscars incident and showed audiences are still turning out for the Hollywood veteran.
Sony’s move mirrors the formula that worked for the Bad Boys sequels, both penned by Bremner. Together, Bad Boys for Life and Ride or Die raked in more than $837 million globally, proving the writer knows how to build crowd-pleasing action comedies around Smith’s star power. Bremner has become a regular collaborator for Smith, also writing the upcoming Netflix thriller Fast and Loose, which is expected to be the actor’s next project. His familiarity with Smith-led stories made him an obvious pick to take on the next Men in Black chapter.
The original Men in Black trilogy, which paired Smith with Tommy Lee Jones, earned nearly $2 billion worldwide between 1997 and 2012. But the 2019 reboot, Men in Black: International, which starred Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, failed to connect with audiences and brought in only $253 million globally.