21 Jump Street is one of the funniest films of the past couple years and it was a surprise hit for the studio both financially and critically. Opening to positive reviews and raking in a solid box office haul, a sequel was green-lit pretty quickly and in a recent interview with Collider, producer Neal Moritz has confirmed that the directing duo from the first film, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, will return to helm 21 Jump Street 2, or whatever it’s going to be called.
Currently, Sony is hoping for a Summer 2014 release for the film and confirmed to return are stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, as well as co-star Ice Cube. As hinted at in the first film, our protagonists will indeed be going undercover at college but Moritz wouldn’t say which university they will be heading to. His reason for keeping it a secret is that there is some “fun to be had in what college they’re going to and what’s going to happen. It really just starts there.”
Check out Moritz’s quote below:
“The relationship developed quite a bit in the first movie and now we’re kind of in the marriage phase between the two guys. Now they’re actual partners, so they’re married – what happens once marriage starts? In certain ways, it’s kind of like the Seven Year Itch of police buddy comedies. What worked so well about the first one was – it was funny, yes, there was good action, yes – but really what worked more than anything was that there was great heart. That’s the thing we’ve been working really hard on, just try and make sure that the heart of the first one is there for the second one.”
So, things are still a bit vague on which direction they’re heading in here but knowing that Lord and Miller are returning, as well as Tatum, Hill and Cube, gives me faith that the sequel will be a worthy follow-up. I laughed harder in 21 Jump Street than any other film last year and I loved every second of it. Hopefully we get more news on the sequel soon because right now, Summer 2014 can’t come soon enough.