Tessa Thompson Men In Black

Reboots, remakes, re-imaginings, re-visitations… Whatever you prefer to call it, the practice has been ubiquitous in Hollywood for years now. And the latest franchise to get the re… something… treatment is ‘Men in Black’. Positioned more as a spinoff than a reboot  per se (though functionally, there’s little difference), Sony’s forthcoming ‘MIB’ prompted the same question that dogs any sort of reboot these days: “Why?”

Well, Tessa Thompson – who stars in the film alongside Chris Hemsworth – has her own thoughts on the matter. Speaking with CinemaBlend on the set of ‘Creed II’, the actress shared her perspective:

“I had so much fun making the movie, and I think if you’re going to reboot something, if you’re going to borrow from a franchise, then you’d better have a good reason to do it, and I think we did. It’s exciting to have a lead agent be a woman, a woman of color, and I feel real proud that it got to be me.”

Diversity and representation is always a plus, to say the least. Not to mention the fact that – assuming the spinoff is successful – having an alternative to the core, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones-fronted films would presumably allow the studio to turn out more than one new installment in this franchise per decade. Of course, the franchise isn’t done with Smith and Jones, at least not in any definitive sense. While it has, like all prior sequels, been slow in coming, there has nonetheless been persistent talk of a proper fourth installment ever since 2012’s ‘Men in Black 3’. Though given that it’s been six years (which, to be fair, isn’t exactly unusual for these movies), that’s the sort of possibility that’s not worth getting too excited about until there’s some actual movement to speak of.

‘MIB’ stars Tessa Thompson, Chris Hemsworth, Liam Neeson, Kumail Nanjiani, Rafe Spall, Rebecca Ferguson, and Emma Thompson. The film, which is being helmed by F. Gary Gray, is due to hit theaters on June 14, 2019.