In my review of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, I talked about how the film didn’t impress me all that much. It felt like a step backward from Bumblebee, but there were still things to get excited about. One was the casting of Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback, who are both great. The second came at the very end of the movie, a tease between two of Hasbro’s great toy franchises that have a history of crossing over. *SPOILERS AHEAD*
The movie concludes with Ramos’ character, Noah, who has just survived a clash with the Terrorcons and Unicron, going back to his civilian life. He takes a job interview, and while it seems normal on the surface, really, the recruiter (Michael Kelly) is secretly a member of G.I. Joe. He hands Noah a business card and, in the final shot, it looks like he’s eager to accept.
So this sets up a potential crossover between Transformers and G.I. Joe, two franchises that have been connected for decades. The two have met in numerous comic book storylines, and if you go back and read those old Marvel comics, they have an intertwined lore that fans have always clung to.
But is Paramount/Hasbro really serious about this? According to director Steven Caple Jr. in an interview with Uproxx, it is definitely happening with a total G.I. Joe reboot.
“Yes. 100 percent. That is my plan for sure,” said the filmmaker about this being a reboot.
Note that Caple says “my plan” and not, OUR plan. Clearly, this isn’t up to him, but Caple is gung-ho (No pun intended, Joe fans!) for it if it does…
“I think that’s one we have to wait on. But I’m always Transformers. I want to say always Transformers. But, I mean, between you and I, I know you’ll read this later, but when you look at it, there is a Transformer, G.I. Joe collaboration in the comic books. And I read it years ago and I thought this idea would always been cool. So I’m not going to say I’m staying true to that storyline, but the fact that it was more so G.I. Joe stepping into their world was interesting to me.”
Getting GI Joe right on the big screen has been a tougher problem to solve than one of COBRA’s terrorist attacks. 2009’s GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra did okay with $302M, although it failed to get much love from critics or fans. Four years later, Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis swooped in for GI Joe: Retaliation, which bumped up the box office a little bit but failed to inspire a lot of love. People weren’t clamoring for a sequel, although Paramount toyed around with doing one for years. Looks like they are serious about it, again.
Perhaps a connection to Transformers is all GI Joe needs to be relevant as a big-screen franchise?
