Yo, Joe! G.I. Joe, America’s daring, highly-trained special mission force, is headed back to the big screen. Toymaker Hasbro is partnering with longtime collaborator Paramount to bring the long-running toy line, whose origins date back to the 1960s, back into live-action for the first time in over a decade.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, The Righteous Gemstones‘ Danny McBride, who was previously revealed to be writing the film’s screenplay, will helm a new live-action take on G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. The film has been in the works for some time; McBride and Max Landis were said to be working on competing takes on the project, with McBride’s take winning out. It will be McBride’s feature film debut as director: he has previously directed episodes of Vice Principals and The Righteous Gemstones, and has penned a number of theatrical screenplays, including The Foot Fist Way, Your Highness, and all three films of David Gordon Green‘s Halloween trilogy. McBride recently spoke about his love for the franchise, and how his script was inspired by Larry Hama‘s classic G.I. Joe comics of the 1980s; he also said that Hasbro was “fired up” about the project, and anticipated that the movie would begin filming in 2027.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
What Is ‘G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero’?
G.I. Joe began as a 12-inch action figure; debuting in 1964 as “America’s Moveable Fighting Man,” he was the first action figure, and could be posed in a wide variety of action poses, and outfitted with extensive combat gear. However, as the decades progressed, the Vietnam War made realistic army toys less popular, and the oil crisis made full-sized action figures more expensive. Thus, Hasbro introduced G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero in 1982. Downsized to 3.75 inches, but still almost as articulated, the new figures were given codenames like Duke, Snake-Eyes, and Scarlett, and positioned as part of a strike force opposed to the evil forces of Cobra, a subversive terrorist organization determined to rule the world. The toys were extremely popular, especially since their small size meant they could be used in a variety of high-tech vehicles, and they soon found their way into comic books and cartoons.
The G.I. Joe team has previously hit the big screen in live-action two times, most recently in 2013’s G.I. Joe: Retaliation; 2021’s Snake Eyes, a solo outing for the popular G.I. Joe ninja, was meant to kickstart a franchise with the whole ensemble, but it disappointed at the box office. More recently, a G.I. Joe/Transformers team-up was teased at the end of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts; Chris Hemsworth was reportedly part of the project, but there has been no news on it for some time.
Danny McBride will direct a new G.I. Joe movie, which is now in development. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
