To date, Hasbro’s G.I. Joe has spawned a beloved toyline, comic books, animated series, and technically a six-star film franchise. Well, 2009’s G.I. Joe: Rise Of The Cobra, 2013’s G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and 2021 prequel joint Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins earned six stars from Empire between them, anyway. But despite a somewhat underwhelming cinematic showing thus far, a new G.I. Joe movie is in the works at Paramount from The Righteous Gemstones co-creator and star Danny McBride. And, in a very promising turn of events, Deadline is reporting that Bradley Cooper has signed on to play First Sergeant Duke — previously portrayed by Channing Tatum — in the film.
According to Deadline, after McBride beat off multiple other G.I. Joe pitchers earlier this year to land the gig directing the military-centric franchise’s latest big-screen outing, the multitalented actor-writer-comedian drew up a wish list of dream stars — and Cooper’s name was right near the top. Luckily for McBride, despite Cooper currently being in production on his own self-written, directed, and starring Ocean’s prequel and coming fresh off the also-self-written, directed, and starring Is This Thing On?, his script clearly captured the actor’s imagination and convinced him to commit to the series’ newest retooling.
Plot details for McBride’s take on G.I. Joe — which, at its most basic level, follows an elite special missions force and their ongoing conflict with Cobra, a ruthless terrorist organisation bent, naturally, on world domination — are largely being kept under wraps for now. The filmmaker did however reveal on Joshua Horowitz’s Happy, Sad, Confused podcast back in July that the film follows Duke and a group of other Joes, and that “there’s a town called Springfield that is secretly all Cobra […] which is where our film takes place.” Beyond that, the only other thing we do know for certain is that the new film won’t be connected to any past projects, including the officially no-longer-happening Transformers x G.I. Joe crossover. And knowing is half the battle, as the old toons famously used to tell us. Stay tuned for more updates as G.I. Joe gets back in action…
