G.I. Joe 3 Was Meant to Crossover with Transformers

Before he was brought on to tackle Paramount Pictures‘ upcoming xXx: Return of Xander Cage, director D.J. Caruso was tasked with helming G.I. Joe 3 for the studio. What big twist did he reveal to Collider about the version he was developing? A G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover.

“Well yeah ,but they’re not ready to do [G.I. Joe meets Transformers] yet,” Caruso revealed. “That’s exactly what they should do, but they’re not ready to do that, because in fact the script that I was developing, the two worlds sort of collided at the end and when they read it they were like, ‘We’re not ready to do this yet.’… They will eventually collide those two worlds and it’s probably when Mr. Bay decides he’s done with Transformers.”

Just because he didn’t get his wish on that front doesn’t mean Caruso is done with project just yet, however.

“It came close, but I think what the studio was trying to do was reassess it and so now they’re back to the drawing board, and we’ll be talking again about it,” confirmed Caruso. “It’s a valuable franchise—[it’s] not that they didn’t get it right, they just wanna really get it right and see if they can push it to the next level.”

The most recent movement on a third Joe came in early 2015 when Paramount enlisted Section 6 screenwriter Aaron Berg to pen the screenplay. Previous drafts for the film have been written by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles‘ Evan Daugherty and Shooter‘s Jonathan Lemkin, though Berg was set to write an all-new script. Then in December of 2015, it was revealed that an interconnected universe was being planned with five nostalgic toy properties under the Hasbro brand, including G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Visionaries, M.A.S.K. and ROM: SpaceKnight. The new film series will be a joint venture between Paramount and Allspark Pictures (Hasbro’s film label) under Brian Goldner, Hasbro chairman, president and CEO, Hasbro exec vp and chief content officer Stephen Davis and Hasbro head of film development Josh Feldman.

The live-action G.I. Joe film franchise was launched in 2009 with G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, starring Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans, Rachel Nichols, Sienna Miller, Byung-hun Lee, Ray Park, Dennis Quaid and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Tatum returned (albeit briefly) alongside Lee and Park for the sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, released in early 2013. The follow-up also starred Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, Adrianne Palicki, Ray Stevenson and Jonathan Pryce. Collectively, the pair of films have grossed more than $675 million at the worldwide box office.