This week, the G.I. Joe franchise finally returns to our screens after an eight-year absence with Snake Eyes, the origin story of the fan favorite ninja as played by Henry Golding. With the spinoff due in just a few days, Paramount has now released the final trailer for the action-packed epic – which you can see via the player above – that promises it’ll be “the best G.I. Joe movie yet”.
Not that that’s saying all that much. 2009’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, starring Channing Tatum, and 2013’s G.I. Joe: Retaliation, with Dwayne Johnson, weren’t exactly top-tier movies, but it looks like the studio may have at last worked out how to capitalize on adapting the toy and animated franchise to the big screen with Snake Eyes. The trailers so far have showed a lot of promise and this one only increases the hype.
Recapping footage we’ve glimpsed in earlier promos, Golding’s Snake Eyes receives his reward when he saves the life of Tommy Arashikage (Andrew Koji) and is taken to train at his secret family dojo. Soon, the lone fighter will have found both a home and a purpose – not to mention his classic costume. The trailer showcases brief moments with Samara Weaving as Scarlett and Ursula Corbero’s Baroness, with the final stinger teasing Tommy’s transformation into Snake Eyes’ nemesis, Storm Shadow.
Clearly, Paramount has big plans for this one. A sequel that would bring back Golding has been in the works for the past year and a live-action TV series based around Lady Jaye is headed to Amazon Prime. With a wealth of characters to choose from and flesh out, we could be in for a multimedia G.I. Joe cinematic universe. But first we’ll have to see how Snake Eyes performs when it releases simultaneously in theaters and on Paramount Plus (for the first 45 days) from this Friday, July 23rd.
