Inside Paramount’s G.I. Joe Reboot: New Story Details

Danny McBride has finished the script for Paramount's new G.I. Joe reboot, and he says it will lean hard into suspense and action rather than broad comedy. Short sentence. Big promise.

McBride, the writer-producer familiar from the Halloween trilogy and a long history in offbeat comedies and character work, landed the gig after submitting a story treatment that hooked studio executives. He told the Happy Sad Confused podcast that the script is done and that Paramount is enthusiastic, with hopes to roll cameras as early as next year.

Childhood love fuels this version. McBride explains that cartoons and the original comics were his North Star while shaping the screenplay. He still keeps those action figures. He even tried to pass them on to his son. The son declined. The daughter did not. Gung Ho and Snake Eyes live on in her toy box.

Original thinking was on the Dreadnoks, McBride says, but Paramount pushed back. A franchise reboot had to come first. So he pivoted, embraced the challenge, and built a story that the studio responded to with a rare dose of excitement. This will not be a jokey send-up. Expect tension. Expect set-piece action. Expect popcorn entertainment with teeth.

One of the more intriguing reveals: the story is anchored in a town called Springfield, reimagined so that virtually every resident is secretly tied to COBRA. That concept gives the reboot a deliciously paranoid undercurrent, a civic-level twist on infiltration and identity that opens dramatic doors and clever set pieces.

Paramount is reportedly assembling a cast, though McBride kept names close to the vest. Casting will be crucial. Tone will be everything. If you want spectacle, the franchise has delivered it before. If you want stakes, this script is aiming for them.

G.I. Joe began as a Hasbro action-figure line in 1964 and expanded into comics, animated series, and multiple films. The franchise's live-action run started in 2009 with G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Channing Tatum, Dennis Quaid, Marlon Wayans, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Sienna Miller. It grossed roughly 302.5 million dollars worldwide but earned mixed-to-negative reviews, landing around 33 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

The 2013 sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation, directed by Jon M. Chu and bolstered by Dwayne Johnson, performed better at the global box office with about 375.7 million dollars. More recently, the 2021 origin story Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, directed by Robert Schwentke and starring Henry Golding, failed to find an audience and underperformed at roughly 40 million dollars.

Paramount has also explored bigger universe ideas, including a potential G.I. Joe and Transformers crossover seeded in 2023's Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. That project still sits in limbo, and the studio seems intent on rebuilding G.I. Joe on firmer creative ground before branching outward again.

So where does that leave fans? With a writer who remembers why he fell in love with the toys and a studio that seems ready to take a fresh swing. Will this reboot finally crack the right tone between suspense, action, and franchise spectacle? Time will tell, but for now the script is on the table and expectations are quietly rising.