Trying and failing three times in a row to launch a prospective franchise would seemingly be enough of an indication that audiences simply aren’t interested in the property, but we live in a world where G.I. Joe is laughing in the face of common sense and gearing up to return to our screens in the hopes that fourth time might actually be the charm.
Based on the law of averages, you’d have to think that it won’t prove to be the case. After all, Stephen Sommers’ The Rise of Cobra did deliver dumb fun in a live-action Team America kind of way, but the profit margins were razor-thin given that the $175 million blockbuster barely made it to $300 million at the box office.
Self-styled “Franchise Viagra” Dwayne Johnson stepped into the breach for sequel/soft reboot Retaliation, which did fare marginally better than its predecessor, but still couldn’t will a follow-up into existence. Then there’s the disastrous Snake Eyes, which ended up as the lowest-grossing G.I. Joe movie yet, securing a status as the single biggest bomb of 2021.
It’s obvious that the brand is a non-started, but producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura has stuck his fingers in his ears, refused to listen, and revealed to Collider what could potentially be coming down the pipeline.
“We actually developed a pilot with Amazon. This was before Paramount Plus, just as Paramount Plus was coming in. It didn’t pan out. We are in a lot of conversations about what to do with it as a film, and so I would have to say, most likely you’re going to see that come to fruition. How soon is always impossible to say. For a long time, there were no active conversations. There’s a lot going on right now.”
He’s even admitting that after three consecutive feature-length failures, a planned TV series didn’t even make it past the development stage, and yet he’s still planning to bring it back! That’s insane, and there won’t be anyone surprised when the fourth G.I. Joe arrives and promptly sinks without a trace, just like all of its predecessors.