Will Men In Black 4 Be Women In Black?

After the announcement that the new Ghostbusters would be women, that the new Star Wars would prominently feature a female hero, and the ongoing phenomenon of female superheroes, we’re getting another great piece of casting news. Men in Black 4 is in development, and it will heavily feature a woman. "There will be a prominent woman in black in the fourth [film]," producer Laurie MacDonald told BBC’s Newsbeat. MacDonald is working with husband Walter Parkes — he worked on the first three in the series — on the next film, which they see as something of a franchise reboot. "We are quite early on in it," Parkes told Newsbeat. "We sort of looked at the first three in retrospect as a bit of a trilogy." Though women have been featured in the series before — Linda Fiorentino became an agent at the end of Men in Black and Emma Thompson featured as Agent O in the third film — they haven’t played as central of a role as the new woman presumably will. Although Will Smith was rumored to no longer be interested in the Men in Black series, Parkes told Newsbeat: "Never count Will out." Sony hopes to crossover the Men in Black series with a more female-centric Jump Street, which is something we can’t wait to see. However things turn out, it’s clear that Hollywood is taking progressive steps to place many more women in starring roles.