Danny McBride’s G.I. Joe Movie Ditches the Jokes for Something Much Darker
The ‘G.I. Joe’ franchise has been trying to find its footing again for years, ever since 2021’s ‘Snake Eyes’ failed to reignite much excitement among fans or box office watchers. That spinoff grossed just $40 million, leaving Paramount searching for a new direction for the Hasbro property. With the studio now under the Paramount Skydance banner, executives have clearly decided the franchise needs a fresh voice rather than another retread.
That search led them to an unlikely name. Paramount has previously released 2009’s ‘G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra’ and 2013’s ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation,’ along with the ‘Snake Eyes’ spinoff in 2021, and has been trying to figure out how to reboot the franchise ever since. Fans got their answer this month when word broke that a new creative force was taking the reins entirely.
According to a recent breakdown shared by entertainment account Culture Crave, Danny McBride is officially directing the new ‘G.I. Joe’ movie and also wrote the script himself. McBride, a self described massive fan of the property, wrote the script for what marks the first new ‘G.I. Joe’ film under the new Paramount Skydance regime. This will also serve as McBride’s feature directorial debut, with most of his directing experience so far coming from helming episodes of ‘Eastbound and Down’ and ‘The Righteous Gemstones.’
Culture Crave’s post also notes that the goal is to begin filming in 2027 and that ‘G.I. Joe’ was McBride’s favorite franchise growing up, a detail McBride has echoed in his own words elsewhere. He recently opened up about the project in more detail during an appearance on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, where he made clear this will not be a comedic take. He explained that the film “grounds G.I. Joe” and leans into “suspense and action” with a full ensemble cast rather than punchlines.
The setting itself pulls from deep comic book lore rather than the earlier films’ globe hopping spectacle. McBride confirmed the story follows Duke and a group of fellow Joes in Springfield, a seemingly ordinary American town that is secretly run entirely by Cobra. That paranoid small town backdrop lines up with the “grounded action film” description Culture Crave’s post highlighted, suggesting a tonal shift away from the franchise’s earlier tentpole approach.
Casting is reportedly already underway, and McBride is said to be reaching out to some famous friends for roles. Insider reports have named Bradley Cooper, Chris Pratt, and Walton Goggins as names being eyed for main roles, though the studio has not confirmed any casting yet. McBride wrote the script alongside his ‘Righteous Gemstones’ collaborators Jeff Fradley and John Carcieri.
The project first surfaced when Paramount was weighing McBride’s take against a separate script from Max Landis. McBride’s version won out entirely, and the studio has since gone all in on his vision for the reboot. With no official release date locked in yet, fans are left buzzing over what a grounded, Cobra infested small town thriller could look like on the big screen.
Who would you cast alongside Duke in a Springfield overrun by secret Cobra agents?
