Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth Will Reunite for Men in Black Spin-Off

Joanna Robinson

Updated March 21, 2018 at 4:30 PM

The <em>Thor: Ragnarok</em> team is headed back to space.

The actor discusses his role in the new Broadway revival of Kenneth Lonergan’s <em>Lobby Hero.</em>

In a stroke of genius, Sony Pictures has remembered that Chris Hemsworth was one of the best parts of its maligned 2016 Ghostbusters reboot—and now the studio plans to plunk him into another comedy property, one that should prove that the Australian actor is afraid of neither ghosts nor aliens. Even better? Hemsworth’s Thor: Ragnarok co-star Tessa Thompson is reportedly joining Hemsworth for the project: a 2019 reboot of Men in Black.

Reportedly more “global” in scope, this new installment in the Men in Black franchise will not involve Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones’s character Agents K or J in any significant way. Presumably, Thompson and Hemsworth will be the new agents on the block.

If Fate of the Furious director F. Gary Gray, who’s at the helm of this new M.I.B., is at all wise, he’ll retain the dynamic that made the first film and (for the most part) its sequels such massive successes. In other words, he’ll need a dour straight man and a loose cannon partner. If the comedy gold of Thor: Ragnarok is the model, then that would make Thompson a solid stand-in for Jones and Hemsworth our Smith-esque wild card.

Sony is also importing even more talent from Marvel Studios in order to ensure Men in Black is a success: screenwriters Matt Holloway and Art Marcum, the duo behind the original Iron Man, will take a crack at the world of secret government organizations and alien invasions. And even if Thompson and Hemsworth wind up being quasi replacements for Jones and Smith, The Hollywood Reporter points out that this new reboot is intended to be “more of an ensemble piece than a two-hander.” So be on the lookout for more talent to join the team—perhaps Mark Ruffalo and Jeff Goldblum are free?

The 2014 Sony hack revealed that the studio was desperately seeking more global franchises. It’s off to a solid start in 2018, with both Peter Rabbit and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle setting up potential sequels and raking in a surprising amount of money at the box office. Those successes follow closely the much lauded re-launch of the Spider-Man franchise with 2017’s critically acclaimed and highly profitable Homecoming, starring Tom Holland.

That hit, of course, owes a lot to the carefully constructed detente between Marvel Studios and Sony, which arranged shared custody of Peter Parker and an invaluable co-starring role from Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. With Sony once again plundering the Marvel team in order to re-pair Thompson and Hemsworth, it seems that the studio has truly adopted a new attitude if you can’t beat ’em, copy ’em.