Key and Peele’s Police Academy Reboot Was Cancelled After Michael Brown’s 2014 Death

Hollywood history is packed with stories about canceled projects, and Ike Barinholtz just revealed one big one on his podcast Funny You Ask: In the 2010s, he and writing partner David Stassen were working on the script for a reboot of the Police Academy franchise, which was going to star and be produced by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. Then, in 2014, Michael Brown was killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

In the podcast (first reported by Variety), Barinholtz revealed that even prior to Brown’s death, the development process on the project was not going well, due to the involvement of the original Police Academy creator: Although the studio wanted a “dirty, rated R, modern” take on the material, the creator pushed back on those elements, and also insisted that the original cast (those who were still alive, at least) have substantial roles.

Then, Barinholtz said, after Brown’s shooting, “we were making the movie for Key and Peele, and people were like, ‘We’re not making a cop comedy right now where we’re having these two hilarious Black actors play police officers.’”

The Police Academy franchise still remains dormant today. Barinholtz is now a series regular on Apple TV’s The Studio, Key appears frequently in comedy projects (and plays the voice of Toad in the Super Mario movies), and Peele is prepping his next horror blockbuster.