Sony has announced that the Men in Black spin-off is official and it will be released in 2019. The spin-off has reportedly been fast tracked by Sony with a May 17th, 2019 release date set and a script written by Matt Holloway and Art Marcum, the writers behind Iron Man and Transformers: The Last Knight. This is huge news for fans of the billion-dollar grossing franchise. Though Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are not expected to make a return for the Men in Black 4, the story is reportedly set to build off of the work that the famous duo conducted over the course of three installments.

Holloway & Marcum have scripted a contemporary sci-fi movie about the secret black clad force that protects Earth from the alien scum of the universe, which is focusing on new characters (possible with a female lead this time) chasing villains that put the picture on more of a global scale than the three previous Men in Black movies. The ambition is similar to the way that Jurassic World rebooted and expanded that franchise. The Men in Black spin-off will be produced by Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald with Steven Spielberg jumping on to executive produce the project.

The team are currently looking for directors for the spin-off, but no official announcement has been made at the time of this writing. Colin Trevorrow has plenty of free time after getting booted from Star Wars 9, so Sony might want to hit him up. The director did a great job with Jurassic World, so maybe he can work his magic that wasn't quite magical enough for Star Wars on the Men in Black spin-off. It is officially the time of the spin-off as Lucasfilm and Disney soldier on with the Han Solo movie and Sony gets the Venom movie off of the ground.

It was originally thought that the newest installment for Men in Black would be a 21 Jump Street mashup, starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill's characters in place of Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith, but that is apparently not the case anymore. Though, the MIB Jump Street idea is reportedly still in development and could still happen at some point in the future. As previously mentioned, the Men in Black spin-off is top priority for Sony and has been placed on the fast track for the studio. Producer Walter F. Parkes confirmed the spin-off to Deadline and had this to say.

"It's so rare to get to the end of the script and know you're holding a movie in your hands - but Art and Matt have written a spinoff that somehow is true to the core of the MIB world, and yet expands the franchise to a fresh new place."

So, there you have it. An official Men in Black spin-off is currently in the works and has a release date of May 17th, 2019, which is not very far out. This is a developing story, which broke on Deadline, and more news is expected to be announced very soon.