Will Smith (famous for Wild Wild West) probably won’t return for the planned 4th installment in the Men In Black franchise, which does not come as a surprise. Men In Black II and Men In Black III were both deeply unsatisfactory, so this decision by Will Smith is probably damage control. Good for him! He isn’t bound by a contract to appear and obviously doesn’t need the money. Go rap some more on the Graham Norton Show!

For an example of someone who seemed contractually obligated to appear in a film, one need look no further than Men In Black III, with Tommy Lee Jones‘ brief and lacklustre performance. Undoubtedly Will Smith would have performed similarly if forced to appear in Men In Black 4, so it’s probably a good thing he’s looking to get out now before the franchise completely falls apart.

Here’s what Will Smith had to say on the subject of Men In Black:

“I think three is enough for me. Three of anything is enough for me. We’ll look at it and we’ll consider it, but it feels like that it might be time to let someone else do that.”

Will Smith has obviously left the opportunity for his return, but considering he’s got a hell of a job ahead of him repairing the shattered and pathetic remains of Jaden Smith‘s career from After Earth (we might be exaggerating a bit), it doesn’t look too likely.

The worst possible outcome would be that Will Smith’s character get’s de-aged, or goes back in time or something, and we get Jaden Smith as Agent J instead. That would just be horrifying, and not out of the realms of possibility.

So what does this mean for the Men In Black 4 project? Sony earlier this year announced that it had Oren Uziel (which, as an aside, is an awesome name) working on a script for a new Men In Black film, but with their star not eager to return it may scupper the entire film.

Who would you like to see lead a new Men In Black film? Jim Carrey? Justin Long? Snoop Lion? Let us know in the comments below!