In anticipation of next summer’s Men in Black reboot, Sony has released the first promotional poster for the sci-fi/comedy blockbuster.
Revealed at the annual Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, the poster keeps things mysterious but at least we know that the MIB logo and those iconic sunglasses will survive the franchise reset. We might just have to wait and see what’s so special about the building reflected in the lenses, though.
Two people who probably won’t be donning the shades in the next Men in Black are Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, the stars of the series from its 1997 film debut until 2012’s quickly forgotten Men in Black 3 – the latter of which, with its generally ‘meh’ reception, left the impression that starting things over wouldn’t be the worst idea.
The next installment, however, could be seen as a spinoff as much as a reboot, since it’ll be set in the same universe as the original trilogy. This means that Agents J and K – along with their heroic escapades across three films – will remain canon in the MIB universe.
Nonetheless, the focus will be shifting to a new set of agents in the form of Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, suggesting that someone at Sony was a big fan of Thor: Ragnarok. One imagines that these two casting choices alone will be enough for the project to win over a few skeptics feeling iffy about another reboot. On top of that, it was recently announced that Liam Neeson may also be joining the team as the “head of the UK branch of the secret government agency.”
In the director’s chair will be Fate of the Furious and Straight Outta Compton helmsman F. Gary Gray, with a script by Iron Man writers Matt Holloway and Art Marcum. Gray already took a fairly respectable stab at updating a beloved film with his 2003 remake of The Italian Job, so let’s hope that the next Men in Black will keep the series alive when it hits cinemas June 14th, 2019.