I gotta tell you, the highlight of my day over the past few days has been when Moviefone posts their latest interview. Mike Ryan has some nerd credibility and is asking all the right questions, though this time he puts a narrow focus on The Rock and Roadblock.
Many Joe fans have been curious as to whether or not they would pay homage to Roadblock’s rhyming talents in the G.I. Joe: Retaliation film, and I even hypothosized that perhaps the Jay-Z line was one of those homages…and it sounds like that might have been right on the money:
“Roadblock in the Larry Hama comic book is a lot different than Roadblock in the cartoon who rhymed everything. Did you ever say, “I’m not doing this if I’m rhyming the entire movie.”
[Laughs] Well, there was no conversation that he should be rhyming the entire movie. But what was important was to pay homage to the character — in terms of his look, in terms of his culinary skills…Yes, he is a chef…
And in terms for his love and passion for poetry — but not necessarily rhyming. It’s my interpretation that he loved poetry. Look, we opened up the Super Bowl spot with him quoting Jay-Z — and that’s Roadblock’s interpretation of wonderful poetry. So there are a lot of components that we paid homage to. He was not rhyming for the entire movie. Nor does he give body massages…”
So not only does The Rock know his Roadblock history, but sounds like he’s a fan of the Fensler Films as well.
Another sticking point for the fandom post Toy Fair were the Arashikage tattoos that were visible on various toys throughout the showroom. Well, Mike Ryan read our minds and brought that up as well.
“Last thing, I noticed the Roadblock action figure has the Arashikage tattoo that Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow have. So Roadblock is a member now?
One of the cool things is our backstory — and we cover this in the film — that Roadblock trains with Snake Eyes and the Arashikage. So, he has that ability, which has yet to be seen — but we will see it.”
I will confirm that yes, during the Toy Fair presentation, Hasbro reps mentioned Roadblock’s training with Snake Eyes…but to become a full fledged member of the Arashikage? I don’t know about that one. We’ll see how that turns out. Once again, hit up Moviefone to read the full interview, lots of great stuff. More kudos to Mike Ryan for asking the good questions.
“Nor does he give body massages…” +100 bonus points to Dwayne Johnson.
“BODY MASSAGES…” thats funny. Interesting back story. Roadblock being an Arashikage member,I think is a real cool twist! I wonder how many other Joes have become acolytes of the Arashikage Masters?
When I played joes as a Kid Snake eyes trained the whole team, this makes sense to me
Makes excellent sense! Who else would you want training your whole team? I think its a cool twist.
Roadblock as a Ninja really isn’t any better than Ripcord as a would-be pilot, Baroness as Duke’s ex, or Cobra Commander as a military science officer gone crazy. Nor is Storm Shadow coming back from the dead or Destro possibly becoming CC (with the former CC disappearing).
This revelation has greatly lowered my anticipation for this movie. Perhaps the rushed filming schedule led to similar coherence problems as ROC.
It will be fun, just like ROC. But I just can’t make sense of the handling of basic plot lines. Maybe Channing Tatum was right about a clean reboot being better.
where did you hear that Destro would become the new Cobra Commander? and im ok with this change with Roadblock, its not like he will be dressed as a ninja running around with a sword, he just trains with Snake Eyes. Even Scarlett trained with Snake Eyes and she is not a “ninja”
W T F ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
IS EVERYBODY A FUCKIN NINJA NOW? OMG they went from a movie with only threads of GIJOE to a movie with the W*O*R*S*T aspects of GIJOE
Reading this with “a” moved one word to the right is quite hilarious.
I’ll hold my opinion on the Arashikage tattoo as a family symbol. The film might interpret it more as a team logo. All the vehicles seem to showcase it. Maybe Roadblock just earns Snake Eyes’s seal of approval but isn’t a “ninja”.
I was really hoping the whole Roadblock trained by the arashakagne thing only happened in the toyline 🙁 Are they hiding this over ninja aspect in the trailers? we don’t even see the Rockblock with Snake-eyes in the trailers do we?
Roadblock is a ninja? Yeah, no.
Definitely would suck BIG TIME if RB is a full-fledged ninja, member of the clan, etc. But if he just received some training from the SE–wasn’t SE the team’s hand-to-hand combat instructor in the comics?–no real biggie IMO. I’m afraid, though, that it’ll be more like the former than the latter.
I hate this. Read the comics. If Scarlett, Billy, and the Blind Master don’t have the i-ching, then no way Roadblock EVER gets that privilege. Weak.