This summer, the galaxy's defenders will return to the big screen in Columbia Pictures' Men in Black: International. This time, however, the story will center on Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) and Agent M (Tessa Thompson) and not Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) and Agent J (Will Smith).
"We went into the project knowing the deep affection we and the fans have for Will and Tommy," director F. Gary Gray says. "We're not replacing them, simply adding to their team."
Thor: Ragnarok co-stars Hemsworth and Thompson preview the upcoming movie in the Jan. 18 issue of Entertainment Weekly (on newsstands Friday). "I didn't think we'd be back together so soon. I thought we'd probably both be in capes. So, I was like, 'We're in suits?" Thompson says. "But it's such a joy to work with him. And It's nice to know that people like seeing us together."
Hemsworth says he sees the fourth movie in the film series as "a sort of reinvention, an opening up of the original franchise that aesthetically is a lot different." For example, the 35-year-old Australian actor notes, "We're not just in New York—we're in Istanbul, Italy, London."
The action begins after an emissary from a powerful alien government is killed on Agent H's watch, and he and Agent M must find the killer and the mole in their organization. "This time the enemy is within. MIB has been compromised from inside," producer Walter F. Parkes teases, leading them on a "globe-trotting adventure to discover the true nature of the threat."
Like its predecessors, the movie is highly subversive. "I think you do have the chance inside of all this escapism to say something and make a movie that has heart, that has satire and that holds up a mirror to our stuff," Thompson, 35, says. "I think that's possible, without preaching."
Men in Black: International hits theaters nationwide June 14.