G.I. Joe is a series of American military science fiction action films based on the toy line of the same name. Development for the first film began in 2003, but when the United States launched the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Hasbro suggested adapting the Transformers instead. In 2009, the first film was released, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. A second film, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, was released in 2013. A third film, centered on Snake Eyes titled Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, also serving as a reboot of the series, was released in 2021.
Films Film U.S. release date Director(s) Screenwriter(s) Story by Producer(s) G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra Stephen Sommers Paul Lovett, David Elliot & Stuart Beattie Stuart Beattie, Stephen Sommers & Michael B. Gordon Bob Ducsay, Brian Goldner & Lorenzo di Bonaventura G.I. Joe: Retaliation Jon M. Chu Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick Brian Goldner & Lorenzo di Bonaventura Snake Eyes Robert Schwentke Joe Shrapnel, Anna Waterhouse & Evan Spiliotopoulos Evan Spiliotopoulos Brian Goldner, Erik Howsam & Lorenzo di Bonaventura
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
The first film in the series, released on August 7, 2009. It grossed $302 million worldwide. It was directed by Stephen Sommers from a screenplay by Stuart Beattie, David Elliot, and Paul Lovett and a story by Michael B. Gordon, Beattie, and Sommers.
In 1994, Larry Kasanoff and his production company, Threshold Entertainment, had held the rights to do a live-action G.I. Joe film with Warner Bros. as the distributor. Instead they chose to concentrate their efforts on their Mortal Kombat films. As late as 1999, there had been rumors that a film from Threshold Entertainment was still a possibility, but that project was canceled.
In 2003, Lorenzo di Bonaventura was interested in making a film about advanced military technology; Hasbro's Brian Goldner called him and suggested to base the film on the G.I. Joe toy line. Goldner and Bonaventura worked together before, creating toy lines for films Bonaventura produced as CEO of Warner Bros. Goldner and Bonaventura spent three months working out a story, and chose Michael B. Gordon as screenwriter, because they liked his script for 300. Bonaventura wanted to depict the origin story of certain characters, and introduced the new character of Rex, to allow an exploration of Duke. Rex's name came from Hasbro. Beforehand, Don Murphy was interested in filming the property, but when the Iraq War broke out, he considered the subject matter inappropriate, and chose to develop Transformers (another Hasbro toy line) instead. Bonaventura felt, "What [the Joes] stand for, and what Duke stands for specifically in the movie, is something that I'd like to think a worldwide audience might connect with."
By February 2005, Paul Lovett and David Elliot, who wrote Bonaventura's Four Brothers, were rewriting Gordon's draft. In their script, the Rex character is corrupted and mutated into the Cobra Commander, whom Destro needs to lead an army of supersoldiers. Skip Woods was rewriting the script by March 2007, and he added the Alex Mann character from the British Action Man toy line. Bonaventura explained, "Unfortunately, our president has put us in a position internationally where it would be very difficult to release a movie called G.I. Joe. To add one character to the mix is sort of a fun thing to do." The script was leaked online by El Mayimbe of Latino Review, who revealed Woods had dropped the Cobra Organization in favor of the Naja / Ryan, a crooked CIA agent. In this draft, Scarlett is married to Action Man but still has feelings for Duke, and is killed by the Baroness. Snake Eyes speaks, but his vocal cords are slashed during the story, rendering him mute. Mayimbe suggested Stuart Beattie rewrite the script. Fan response to the film following the script review was negative. Bonaventura promised with subsequent rewrites, "I'm hoping we're going to get it right this time." He admitted he had problems with Cobra, concurring with an interviewer "they were probably the stupidest evil organization out there [as depicted in the cartoon]". Hasbro promised to write Cobra back into the script.
In August 2007, Paramount Pictures hired Stephen Sommers to direct the film after his presentation to CEO Brad Grey and production prexy Brad Weston was well received. Sommers had been inspired to explore the G.I. Joe universe after visiting Hasbro's headquarters in Rhode Island. The project had found the momentum based on the success of Transformers, which Bonaventura produced with Murphy. Sommers partly signed on to direct because the concept reminded him of James Bond, and he described an underwater battle in the story as a tribute to Thunderball. Stuart Beattie was hired to write a new script for Sommers's film, and G.I. Joe comic and filecard writer Larry Hama was hired as creative consultant. Hama helped them change story elements that fans would have disliked and made it closer to the comics, ultimately deciding fans would enjoy the script. He persuaded them to drop a comic scene at the film's end, where Snake Eyes speaks. To speed up production before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, John Lee Hancock, Brian Koppelman and David Levien also assisted in writing various scenes. Goldner said their inspiration was generally Hama's comics and not the cartoon. Sommers said had it not been for the rich backstory in the franchise, the film would have fallen behind schedule because of the strike.
After Variety had reported that G.I. Joe became a Brussels-based outfit that stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, there were reports of outrages over Paramount's alleged attempt to change the origin of G.I. Joe Team. Hasbro responded on its G.I. Joe website claiming it was not changing what the G.I. Joe brand is about, and the name "G.I. Joe" will always be synonymous with bravery and heroism. Instead, it would be a modern telling of the "G.I. Joe vs. Cobra" storyline, based out of the "Pit" as they were throughout the 1980s comic book series.
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)
The second film in the series, released on March 28, 2013, in 3D and IMAX 3D. It grossed $375 million worldwide. It was directed by Jon M. Chu from a screenplay written by Rhett Reese, and Paul Wernick.
For the second film, after the financially successful release of The Rise of Cobra, Rob Moore, the studio vice chairman of Paramount Pictures, stated in 2009 that a sequel would be developed. In January 2011, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the writers of Zombieland, were hired to write the script for the sequel. The film was originally thought to be titled G.I. Joe: Cobra Strikes, which was later denied by Reese. Stephen Sommers was originally going to return as director of the sequel, but Paramount Pictures announced in February 2011 that Jon Chu would direct the sequel. In July 2011, the sequel's name was revealed to be G.I. Joe: Retaliation.JJ Abrams Moving Toward Helming 'Star Trek 2,' But 'G.I. Joe' Sequel Will Get His June 29, 2012 Release Slot Deadline Hollywood, July 2, 2011 Chu would later declare that Paramount wanted a reboot that also served as a sequel to The Rise of Cobra since "a lot of people saw the first movie so we don't want to alienate that and redo the whole thing."
Snake Eyes (2021)
In May 2018, Paramount announced a film centered on Snake Eyes, with Evan Spiliotopoulos hired to write the script. In December, Robert Schwentke signed on as director with principal photography scheduled to take place in Japan, Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada and Los Angeles, California. Ray Park was later reported to not reprise the role, as the film deals with the character's origin story. By August 2019, Henry Golding was cast as Snake Eyes, while Andrew Koji was set to portray Storm Shadow, replacing Lee Byung-hun, who portrayed the character in previous films. Kimani Ray Smith was hired as Stunt Coordinator on the project. In September 2019, Iko Uwais entered negotiations to portray Hard Master, while Úrsula Corberó was cast as Anastasia Cisarovna / Baroness (replacing Sienna Miller, who played the character in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra). James Madigan was hired as the Second-Unit Director, after previously working on G.I. Joe: Retaliation. By October 2019, Samara Weaving was cast as Shana O'Hara / Scarlett (replacing Rachel Nichols, who previously portrayed the character in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra), while Takehiro Hira, Haruka Abe and Steven Allerick were cast in an undisclosed roles.
The film was scheduled for an October 23, 2020 release date, and was delayed to July 23, 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Potential projects Untitled reboot film In February 2026, two separate treatments for a new G.I. Joe film had been pitched to Paramount, one written by Max Landis and the other by Danny McBride. In March 2026, it was announced that Paramount would pass on Landis' treatment and were still in talks with/awaiting scripts from other writers like McBride. McBride revealed to Josh Horowitz in an interview on his Happy, Sad, Confused podcast that his G.I. Joe movie will follow Duke and the team battling Cobra in their town of Springfield and won't be a comedy. He also announced that he written the script with Jeff Fradley and John Carcieri who their worked with on his HBO comedy series The Righteous Gemstones and will start filming in 2027 with McBride making his Directorial debut. Daniel Richtman reported that the studio are eyeing Bradley Cooper, Walton Goggins and Chris Pratt for roles after Chris Hemsworth has exited the movie for undisclosed reasons. Cooper was officially confirmed to play Duke in October 2026.
Other projects in development Philip "Chuckles" Provost film: In November 2015, Paramount Pictures announced that the G.I. Joe series would feature further installments in the future with Akiva Goldsman creating a writers room of screenwriters to determine future projects. In August 2019, Paramount announced a spin-off film which will include Philip "Chuckles" Provost was in development. After completing the script for G.I. Joe: Ever Vigilant, Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec were hired as co-screenwriters. Lady Jaye film: In February 2021, a spin-off streaming television series centered around Alison Hart-Burnett / Lady Jaye was announced to be in development. It was intended to be an expansion of the G.I. Joe film series, and released as an Amazon Prime Video exclusive. Erik Oleson was hired at the time as showrunner, series creator, and executive producer; while Lorenzo di Benaventura was also attached as an executive producer. By May 2023 however, di Bonaventura stated that the television series was no longer happening. He and the studio are looking to expand the script for the pilot episode, and develop the story as a new feature film.
Potential shared universe In December 2015, it was reported that Hasbro and Paramount were creating a cinematic universe that would combine G.I. Joe with fellow Hasbro properties Micronauts, Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, M.A.S.K., and Rom. In April 2016, The Hollywood Reporter stated that a writers' room was formed consisting of Michael Chabon, Brian K. Vaughan, Nicole Perlman, Cheo Coker, John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein and others. Director D. J. Caruso said in January 2017 that a script was being written, but the writers' room disbanded six months later. The project has since remained in development.
Cancelled films