Channing Tatum Blames ‘Bureaucracy’ for Stalling ’23 Jump Street,’ Confirms Jonah Hill Would Return

Channing Tatum is determined to continue his trilogy streak.

After wrapping up “Magic Mike” with the third film in 2023, Tatum confirmed that the long-awaited follow-up to 2014 sequel “22 Jump Street” is still in development.

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Tatum told ComicBook that he and co-star Jonah Hill have “been trying” to get the third “21 Jump Street” feature greenlit for years. Tatum and Hill co-starred as former teen nemeses turned police academy buddies who go undercover as high schoolers to thwart a rising drug gang. The duo reprised their respective roles for the 2014 film that saw their characters go to college.

During the infamous Sony leaked emails hack, it was revealed that a third “Jump Street” installment was planned to be a crossover with the “Men in Black” franchise. The feature, tentatively titled “MIB 23,” was never made.

“There is a project that was written and it’s still the best script that I’ve ever read for a third movie,” Tatum said. “It’s just a lot of bureaucracy, kind of above the line stuff. It’s really hard to get it made and we’ve been trying to get it done.”

Tatum continued, “You know what, I’m going to put some good juju out there and I’m going to say I would love to see ’23 Jump Street.’ I would love to do it with Jonah, and Jonah I know wants to do it. We would love to just get to go play again.”

Director Chris Miller told Slashfilm in 2015 that he and partner Phil Lord would not be returning to direct “23 Jump Street” at the time, despite being part of its development.

“We are hard at work on ’23 Jump Street,’ which I think we will probably just produce from a time standpoint. But we’ve been working really hard,” Miller said. “We’ve got a really good first draft of a script in and we’re really excited about it.”

Meanwhile, Tatum is set to star in fiancée Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut “Blink Twice.” Originally titled “Pussy Island,” the film is billed as a horror-drama that centers on Tatum’s tech billionaire Slater King and his eerie private island. Kravitz co-wrote the script with E.T. Feigenbaum (“High Fidelity”).

Naomi Ackie, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Kyle MacLachlan, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis, and Alia Shawkat co-star.

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