Per The Hollywood Reporter, Danny McBride will direct the next G.I. Joe movie for Paramount Pictures. The actor was previously attached to write the project earlier this year, opposite (much more controversially) Max Landis, whose script Paramount contemplated merging with McBride’s. The film will mark McBride’s first as a director, with his previous directorial credits having consisted of episodes of his HBO series Vice Principals (2016), and The Righteous Gemstones (2019-25).
He will become the fourth director to helm a live-action G.I. Joe movie in a row, following Stephen Sommers (The Rise of Cobra, 2009), Jon M. Chu (Retaliation, 2013), and Robert Schwentke (Snake Eyes, 2021). While none of the previous G.I. Joe movies have set the box office alight (with Snake Eyes outright flopping), it remains an important property for Paramount and Hasbro, especially with the prospect of a crossover with its sister franchise Transformers (which was teased at the end of 2023’s Rise of the Beasts).
As for what fans might expect from the movie, McBride recently wrote the anthology novel Thrilling Tales of Modern Men, which “probes the fragile masculinity that has become an inescapable part of modern American culture.” In a New York Times interview about the book, he stated, “Growing up in the ’80s, you were being sold machismo, action, ‘kill ’em all, let God sort ’em out.’ That was pounded into anyone’s brains that came up on cable television or watching movies. I think it took me a little while to realize that’s not real life. That’s not how things work.” Suffice to say, it’s a thoughtful outlook for someone set to reinterpret a toy line that reached the height of its popularity as the Real American Hero franchise in the ’80s.
Other works written by McBride includes the recent Halloween trilogy (2018-22), 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer, and 2016’s Your Highness (all of which were directed by David Gordon Green), as well as The Righteous Gemstones, Vice Principals, and his breakout 2009-13 series Eastbound & Down. While the latter two films in the Halloween revival received negative reviews, the first was well-received, and earned a Saturn nomination for Best Horror Film; McBride also won a WGA Award for Television: Episodic Comedy for The Righteous Gemstones earlier this year.
In the meantime, Skybound’s G.I. Joe comics (including the continuation of Larry Hama‘s Real American Hero, and the shared Transformers Energon Universe books) continue to go strong, with an animated series of the latter currently in-development. A five-issue Tomb Raider crossover will also begin on October 7, with a G.I. Joe Classified action figure of her set to go up for pre-orders on Thursday, July 23.
