Yo, Joe! A real American hero is headed back to the big screen, and it may be happening sooner than you think. Paramount's new G.I. Joe movie, based on the classic Hasbro action figures, cartoon, and comic books, is in development, and it now has a release date that will put it in theaters in less than two years.
The Righteous Gemstones' Danny McBride will write and direct the movie. Originally, McBride approached toy giant Hasbro with an idea for a movie centered around the Dreadnoks, an uncouth band of swamp-dwelling mercenaries who often menace the G.I. Joe team. Instead, Hasbro convinced him instead to work on a movie concentrating on G.I. Joe itself, a daring, highly-trained special mission force. The franchise has had a couple big-screen missions in the past: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra hit theaters in 2009 in the wake of Hasbro's blockbuster live-action Transformers. While the Joes didn't bust the box office the way their robotic compatriots did, the film got a 2013 sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Hasbro then attempted to reboot the franchise with 2021's Snake Eyes, which centered around one of the franchise's most popular characters. However, it failed to conquer the post-pandemic box office, resulting in another reboot.
Now, Paramount has announced that G.I. Joe will hit theaters on October 20, 2028. That puts it outside the summer blockbuster season, and in a weekend that's so far devoid of competition. Although two years doesn't seem like much, it's distant enough that many of the films surrounding it don't have titles yet. There's some horror fare in store for that month, including Gremlins 3 and the animated Freddy the 13th. Meanwhile, the first week of November will bring the untitled big-screen movie that let Paramount pry Stranger Things impresarios Matt and Ross Duffer away from Netflix.
So far, only one role in the film has been cast: Bradley Cooper will star as Conrad S. Hauser, alias Duke, the intrepid field leader of the G.I. Joe team. As far as the plot goes, McBride has been tight-lipped as Chuckles, but we do know that he'll take inspiration from Larry Hama's 1980s G.I. Joe comic books and set the movie in Springfield, a seemingly peaceful small town that's actually completely controlled by Cobra, a subversive terrorist organization with designs on world domination.
G.I. Joe will be released on October 20, 2028. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
