It’s been eight years since Paramount dropped GI Joe: Retaliation as the biggest, most starry attempt to get the popular toy line as recognized on the big screen as their Transformers counterparts. That film was only a marginal success, and so all of this time later they’re going in a different direction with focus on the most popular Joe of all: the ninja commando Snake Eyes.
The first trailer for Snake Eyes: GI Joe Origins debuted last night during the MTV Movie Awards. Henry Goulding, who broke out in Crazy Rich Asians, takes on the role of Snake Eyes in an origin story of his elite training as part of the Arashikage ninja clan. The film may show us how that leads to his joining of the GI Joe squad, as his future love Scarlett also appears in the film, played by Samara Weaving.
Andrew Koji plays his rival Storm Shadow, with Ursula Corbero as Baroness, Iko Uwais as Hard Master, Peter Mensah as Blind Master, Haruka Abe as Akiko, and Takehiro Hira as Kenta.
Ray Park played Snake Eyes in the previous two GI Joe films, but since he never took the mask off (he almost never does in the comics or cartoon) the switch to Goulding should work out pretty well. While this trailer is only about a minute long, it does promise a ton of action from director Robert Schwentke, no stranger to it from his work on Red, two Divergent films, and RIPD.
Snake Eyes: GI Joe Origins opens July 23rd, then will move to Paramount+ at a later date.
