The Transformers and G.I. Joe franchises are both in the process of being rebooted, with Steven Caple Jr.’s Rise of the Beasts kicking off shooting last month, while Robert Schwentke’s Snake Eyes hits theaters tomorrow. Despite each property undergoing at least a couple of reinventions already, talk of a potential crossover has never gone away.
After the five-film Michael Bay series drew to a close at least one movie too late, Bumblebee headed back to the 1980s and delivered the best Transformers film yet. Rise of the Beasts occupies the middle ground, taking place after Travis Knight’s nostalgia trip but a decade before Bay’s 2007 original, and if it performs to expectations then sequels are a guarantee.
Meanwhile, Snake Eyes marks the third clean slate for G.I. Joe, eleven years after Stephen Sommers’ The Rise of Cobra. If the martial arts action blockbuster flops, then Paramount are running out of chances to turn the brand into a sustainable and worthwhile investment.
In a new interview, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, producer of every Transformers and G.I. Joe installment to date, admitted that the two toyetic favorites crossing paths is a matter of when, and not if.
“You know, the truth of matter is, the studio has always been against that. Every regime that’s been at Paramount is against it because it’s taking two franchises and making them one, but I think it’s inevitable. Well, it’s funny, Steven Caple, who’s directing Transformers right now, is a huge G.I. Joe fan, too. And he was like, ‘Why aren’t you doing that?’. Everyone was like, ‘Well, try to make a Transformers movie really good. Then we’ll talk about that’. Maybe Steven will be the one to crack through because he loves them both so much.”
Crossovers can often be viewed as one last roll of the dice to see if smashing two well-known brands together can accomplish what they failed to do individually, but G.I. Joe is under much more scrutiny than Transformers if Snake Eyes makes it zero-for-three in terms of getting a sequel off the ground.
The Autobots and the Decepticons are in much better shape having already brought in over $4.8 billion at the box office, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be seeing the crossover happen in the future, especially with di Bonaventura’s continued involvement.
