Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, and Ice Cube are all returning for 24 Jump Street. Not 23. They skipped it entirely. The producer posted the script cover on Instagram with the caption "it took so long to make, we had to skip one," which is honestly the most Jump Street move possible.
This franchise has always been self aware in the best way. The first film took a forgotten 80s TV show and turned it into one of the sharpest buddy comedies of the 2010s. The sequel leaned even harder into the meta humor, openly mocking the idea of doing the same thing again while somehow making it work. Skipping a number in the title is just the next logical step for a series that has never taken itself seriously.
Rodney Rothman is directing, which is an interesting choice that I think signals where this thing is headed. Rothman co-directed Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a film that reinvented what animated storytelling could look like. He clearly knows how to work within a franchise while pushing it somewhere unexpected. That sensibility feels right for a third Jump Street movie that needs to justify its own existence after a decade.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller are back producing, which matters a lot. Those two have been behind nearly every great comedy surprise of the last fifteen years, from The Lego Movie to the Spider-Verse films. Their fingerprints on the tone and humor of the Jump Street series are a big part of why it works. Hill co-wrote the script this time around, which tells you he is invested in the material, not just showing up for a paycheck.
The numbers on the first two films speak for themselves. 21 Jump Street did over 200 million worldwide on a modest budget. 22 Jump Street nearly doubled that, pulling in 331 million. Studios do not greenlight sequels out of artistic passion. They greenlight them because the audience showed up, and the audience showed up twice.
What makes me cautiously optimistic is that everyone involved seems to understand the assignment. The self-aware humor, the willingness to poke fun at sequel culture, and a director who proved he can handle big creative swings all point in the right direction. Comedy sequels have a terrible track record, but this crew has already beaten those odds once. I would not bet against them doing it again.
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