Warning: SPOILERS for Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins.
Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins is the latest attempt to launch a movie franchise and its failures further illustrate why G.I. Joe should be a TV series instead. Starring Henry Golding, Snake Eyes not only reboots the eponymous black ninja commando's origin and rivalry with Storm Shadow (Andrew Koji) but also sets up a different universe where G.I. Joe and Cobra already exist and have been at war for decades. Unfortunately, Snake Eyes failed to set the box office on fire, which leaves G.I. Joe's movie future in doubt when the answer to the Joes' woes is to return to their roots as a TV series.
Along with Transformers and Masters of the Universe, G.I. Joe was at the forefront of the 1980s toy boom. Hasbro's gigantic line of action figures, vehicles, and playsets was supported by a wildly popular cartoon, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, that aired five days a week and was religiously watched by kids (mainly boys). In addition, G.I. Joe was a hit Marvel Comics series written by Larry Hama, who masterminded the backstories of the G.I. Joe and Cobra characters for Hasbro. The animated G.I. Joe: The Movie never made it to theaters and, by the end of the decade, as the core audience grew up, G.I. Joe's toy sales declined. However, G.I. Joe was kept alive over the years through more comic books, animated series, and toy revivals but a live-action G.I. Joe was never attempted in the 1990s.
In 2007, Michael Bay brought Transformers to the big screen, launching a multi-billion-dollar franchise that included 4 sequels, a Bumblebee spinoff starring Hailee Steinfeld, and soon, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. When Transformers became a hit, Hasbro naturally decided to bring G.I. Joe to theaters as well. 2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Marlon Wayans, Christopher Eccleston, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, didn't come close to matching Transformers' success despite its all-star cast. But The Rise of Cobra did earn enough to merit a sequel, 2013's G.I. Joe: Retaliation, which killed off most of the previous cast to make way for new lead characters Dwayne Johnson as Roadblock and Bruce Willis as General Joe Colton. Unfortunately, Retaliation earned less than The Rise of Cobra, which scuttled the G.I. Joe movies until Hasbro tried again with 2021's Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins.
Unfortunately, Snake Eyes received mixed reviews and it only earned $13.3-million in its opening weekend. It's in doubt whether the reboot can earn back its $88-million budget. This is a serious blow to Hasbro's dreams of launching a new G.I. Joe movie series off of Snake Eyes, which they already set up by introducing G.I. Joe's Scarlett (Sienna Miller) and Cobra's Baroness (Úrsula Corberó). However, the answer to G.I. Joe's problems is on the small screen, which is where the military toy property achieved some of its greatest success in the 1980s. G.I. Joe is tailor-made for television and Hasbro should abandon making movies to properly bring the Joes and Cobra to a streaming service.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a case study of the major challenges in translating the Joes and Cobra to the big screen. G.I. Joe boasts dozens of characters, all of whom have intricate backstories, plus their signature weapons and vehicles. Transformers, which also has dozens of robots in disguise, was comparatively easier because outside of Optimus Prime and Megatron, most of the Autobots and Deceptions don't have individual backstories, which is partly why human characters like Shia LaBoeuf's Sam Witwicky and Mark Wahlberg's Cade Yaeger were the movies' main characters.
The Rise of Cobra's solution was to consolidate Duke (Tatum), Baroness (Miller), and Cobra Commander's (Gordon-Levitt) origin so that they were all part of a love triangle that went awry and led to the creation of Cobra Command. However, it was a tough pill to swallow for longtime G.I. Joe fans that Duke and the Baroness used to be engaged and her brother, Rex, was Duke's best friend who was believed dead but instead became a masked terrorist and founded Cobra. In addition, The Rise of Cobra centered on Destro (Eccleston) as the main villain, had to introduce nearly a dozen members of the G.I. Joe team, plus the master chameleon Zartan (Arnold Vosloo), while also incorporating the popular Snake Eyes (Ray Park) and Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) and their ninja history.
The Rise of Cobra boldly tried to cram as many G.I. Joe characters and vehicles as they could into two hours but there is simply too much lore to do the franchise justice in one film. G.I. Joe: Retaliation took the opposite route and killed off most of the prior films' cast to tell a more streamlined story with a smaller budget while still including spectacle. Neither attempt satisfied fans, nor did Snake Eyes' solution of focusing on Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, and the Arashikage ninja clan while only touching on G.I. Joe and Cobra's existence. G.I. Joe is simply too big for a movie and it hasn't proven popular or profitable enough to sustain a series of movies like Transformers did.
Snake Eyes' smaller-scale and more intimate character portraits of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow would have worked better as part of a streaming show instead of a film. Snake Eyes contained an intriguing turn where the title character was hellbent on revenge for the death of his father (Steven Allerick). Snake Eyes was actually secretly working for the villainous Kenta (Takehiro Hira) for most of the film until he embraced his heroic side. In contrast, Storm Shadow was a man of honor who made a terrible mistake that led to choosing an evil path because he felt betrayed by Snake Eyes and the Arashikage clan. There was also a larger story involving Cobra's attempts to infiltrate Japan that were left dangling at the end of the film and won't be resolved if there's no sequel.
Instead of a movie, Snake Eyes' story and characters would have thrived on the small screen as part of a greater G.I. Joe TV saga. The action in Snake Eyes was first-rate but it was also mostly hand-to-hand combat and vehicle stunt work more suitable for TV, and the film shied away from the wanton spectacle of whole cities being destroyed like how The Rise of Cobra and G.I. Joe: Retaliation devastated the Eiffel Tower and London, respectively. Snake Eyes' origin story, detailed character exploration, and its slow-burn method of gradually unraveling G.I. Joe's conflict with Cobra also would have played better over the multiple episodes of a TV series, instead of hoping for more movies to finish the story.
Hasbro wanting to duplicate Transformers' movie success with G.I. Joe is understandable but after three failed attempts, it's obvious G.I. Joe doesn't really work as a movie. Instead, G.I. Joe belongs on a streaming service, where the various characters and their stories can be properly serviced as part of a larger G.I. Joe vs. Cobra narrative. Budget, scale, and spectacle are also no longer issues on television since, in the wake of Game of Thrones, Marvel Studios' Disney+ shows and huge productions like Amazon's Lord of the Rings are spending tens of millions of dollars to bring their fantastic worlds to life as streaming shows. A sufficient budget for G.I. Joe would ensure its plethora of unique vehicles and settings like G.I. Joe's command center, the USS Flag aircraft carrier, and Cobra's Terror Drome could be built for the TV show.
G.I. Joe belongs back on television as the live-action evolution of the hit 1980s cartoon. Snake Eyes, in particular, could successfully shift from a failed movie franchise to the start of a G.I. Joe TV series that could properly continue the story the film began. After all, streaming shows also carry enough prestige that big-name actors are now starring them so it's possible Henry Golding and Samara Weaving could return for G.I. Joe TV show if Snake Eyes 2 doesn't happen. Or, even if it's yet another G.I. Joe reboot, the franchise would work best as a continuing series that could delve into Duke, Destro, Scarlett, the Baroness, Zartan, and Cobra Commander's backstories while properly building a full-scale universe about G.I. Joe vs. Cobra that would satisfy older fans and create new ones. And while Amazon announced a G.I. Joe spinoff show about Lady Jaye, a full-fledged G.I. Joe series is what fans would really prefer.
Hasbro's insistence on G.I. Joe being a movie series is indicative of a greater Hollywood trend to develop films for properties that are better off as prestige streaming shows. To choose other 1980s cartoons as examples, there have been movies about He-Man and Robotech languishing in development hell for years, and that's because those are also properties with dense lore and scores of characters that are too big for a two-hour film. Even though Transformers was a global hit franchise, Michael Bay's cacophonous smash-em-ups have never really been about the robots, who exist only for CGI spectacle.
Now that streaming shows have evolved to encompass smart writing, excellent acting, and the ability to create spectacular fantasy worlds filled with memorable characters, movies are no longer the be-all, end-all despite the prestige feature films boast. It would be smarter business for Hollywood to reassess a property like G.I. Joe and realize that a saga as dense with mythology and characters is best serviced by embracing the long-form storytelling approach TV allows. Instead of developing another movie like Snake Eyes that history has proven won't generate a franchise, G.I. Joe should become a streaming series to finally do the Joes and Cobra justice.
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