Colonel James Darrell Edwards II

Colonel James Darrell Edwards II is Agent J's father and a minor character in Men in Black 3. He is portrayed by Mike Colter.

Summary
In 1969, he is the Colonel at the Apollo 11 launch site at Cape Canaveral. He, along with everyone, is watching the launch with his firstborn, then known as James Darrell Edwards III. When the MPs arrested Jay, Kay and Griffin, they were taken to the Colonel and Kay tried to tell him the truth at Griffin's insistence. The Colonel refused to listen and ordered them locked up, but changed his mind when Griffin showed him the future. The Colonel escorted the agents to the launch tower and told them what to do.

When asked by Jay about what Griffin showed him, he tells them that it was the importance of Jay and Kay to the future though its unclear if he knew that Jay was in fact the future version of his son. After the launch and the Arc Net Shield was deployed, Kay offers the Colonel a job with MiB. He wishes he could when he replied back to Kay, but he's got a country to protect.

Unfortunately, the past Boris appeared and the Colonel tried to kill him, saving Kay but getting a spike through the heart in the process, killing him instantly. Kay then killed Boris and neuralyzed the Colonel's young son, telling him that his father was a hero. While witnessing this, Jay who had grew up never knowing what happened to his father and only having an old pocket watch he gave him realized that the Colonel was his father and K had been watching over him his whole life. Once back to a restored 2012, Jay confronts Kay about it and the two reconcile.

The Colonel's death by the hands of Boris was the reason Kay regretted not killing him after his arrest in 1969, otherwise Kay would consider Boris a nuisance he had to arrest for trying to stop the Arc Net's deployment, instead Kay was deeply hurt by Boris leaving a young Jay without a father.

Trivia

 * In the ending credits, he is only referred to as "Colonel", presumably to avoid spoiling his real identity.
 * Colonel James inspired Jay to become a cop.
 * His death inspired Kay to make Jay into his successor.