I knew when I got GeneralsJoes fired back up a couple of weeks back, that news for the upcoming G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes film would start hitting hard, and I wasn’t disappointed.
In the past week, I’ve talked to Chris at The Full Force several times regarding updates to the Snake Eyes movie, everything from BS casting news to Henry Golding’s rumored casting, to the return of Robert Schwentke and the assembling of the full production team, preparing to leap into the fray.
Much of this news comes from Silver Optimus at HISSTank.com and I’ve spent quite a while addressing the news with Chris at The Full Force.
The outstanding question really remains – what do we make of all of this? Is this really happening? Is a new G.I. Joe film on the horizon? If so, how will it resemble the brand as we know it?
The first question that comes up is Henry Golding. It seems a done deal that he’s a part of the G.I. Joe cast, but is he Snake Eyes as many online outlets are assuming? Or could he be Storm Shadow? Does it really matter?
Golding is a potential emerging star, and having him involved in the film is a good thing, in my eyes, though the potential of him being Snake Eyes has already caused a bit of a fandom furor, not just because Snake Eyes has traditionally been seen as Caucasian, but because his nature as an “outsider” among the Arashikage clan is a large part of his character development arc. I think he can still be an outsider if Golding portrays him, my larger question is, why would they cast an emerging star like Golding in a role that (one would assume) has him eventually wearing a mask for 90% of the time.
Unless, of course, they’re going to drastically alter the Snake Eyes mythology even more than one might think.
Lots of really cool elements to dissect for sure, and I’m thinking I got GeneralsJoes fired back up just in time. Regardless of who Henry Golding plays, who is directing the film, and how things are shaking out, I’m pretty excited to have something new to talk about. Definitely check out the Full Force News Bursts below to hear me and Chris hash some of these things out.
Over on his Twitter page, artist for the upcoming IDW Publishing G.I. Joe series Chris Evenhuis has posted a first look at the cover, featuring who I can only guess is Major Bludd!
It’s a great early glimpse at the fan favorite character and I continue to really enjoy the updated looks.
Check it out and make sure you’re following both Chris and writer Paul Allor as they continually release new info along the way.
EDIT – Thanks to SkinnyJoeFan for letting us know that Alan Baltes is a CON ARTIST. The Tweet and linked “Casting Page” are erroneous and should not be believed.
On to you’re regularly scheduled G.I. Joe fandom hysteria.
I officially don’t know what to believe any more. In recent days, news has begun bubbling to the surface again in regards to G.I. Joe: Ever Vigilant the rumored sequel to G.I.Joe: Rise of COBRA and G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
For those who don’t remember, news of this crazy film emerged over a year ago via ThisHashtagShow (linked here via CBR because the original article appears to be gone…) and while this early information is obviously fully in rumor mill territory, there seem to be some more current facts aligning with this nutty news.
For anyone who doesn’t remember, G.I. Joe: Ever Vigilant promised to introduce Tomax and Xamot to the G.I. Joe movie universe and place a focus on Chuckles, surrounded by the strangest group of supporting characters I ever heard.
Fellow G.I. Joe team members would supposedly include Adele Burkhart, Wild Bill, Keel Haul, Barbecue, Doc, and General Flagg. Well, thanks to HissTank.com for passing along the word that an official Paramount Casting Agent Tweeted over the past week that they are beginning casting for the film, and sure enough listed several of the above characters as characters slated to appear in the film.
Now, we should still take this with a grain of salt. Early reports stated that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was hoping to come back for Ever Vigilant, and so far we’ve seen no indication of this.
Also, the original story was initially being developed as a way to join several Hasbro franchises within the rumored Hasbro Cinematic Universe, but to this point we’ve seen no sign of that moving forward either.
Keep in mind, this is the same film script that was talking about futuristic weaponry and time travel as a key component to the script. You may want to check out the recent Full Force News Burst we recorded to talk about the more insane aspects of the rumored Ever Vigilant script.
As usual, HissTank.com is on top of any and all news related to the upcoming G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes film, reporting that Andrew Li has updated his LinkedIn Profile with the fact that he is now the Art Director for G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes.
This is fantastic news from a pure talent perspective as Mr. Li has had his fingers in some of the most stylistically appealing films in recent memory, including Pacific Rim, Star Trek: Beyond, X-Men 2, and a litany of others (you can check out his portfolio right here).
Of course, that does bring up some questions… everything we’ve heard about the Snake Eyes film to date indicates it’s a prequel and that it takes some serious cues from 1970’s Kung Fu films. Personally, I struggle a little to see where Mr. Li’s style dovetails with 70’s Kung Fu, but based on his qualifications alone, I remain exceptionally optimistic.
Be sure to check out the latest Full Force News Burst as well to get our initial reaction and opinions to this news.
It’s Wednesday, which means new comic day! Today marks the release of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #265… snag it at your local comic shops and take a peek at the five page preview below.
What’s the deal on GeneralsJoes Reborn, and wait– how many times did my wife watch the new Top Gun trailer?!?
Also, some exclusive footage only for Full Force Patreon subscribers… the latest “outtakes” features some truly intriguing insight by me and Chris, only available to those of you who subscribe via Patreon…
What can I say, I’m a sucker for G.I. Joe licensed media and the latest one to have me captivated is War on COBRA.
First, a disclaimer – G.I. Joe: War on COBRA has not been officially announced or revealed by Hasbro or anyone affiliated. It is currently only available to certain international locations, and appears to be Android only (so far). Also, this is likely a beta version of the game, so chances that it’s compatible with any of your devices are slim.
However, G.I. Joe: Battlegrounds started out the same way several years back, so I have no reason to believe War on COBRA won’t be more widely available very shortly. I will say, thanks to an Android emulator on my trusty Surface Pro laptop, I’ve had a chance to play it quite a bit over the past twenty-four hours and it is a ton of fun. Gameplay is very similar to stuff like Command and Conquer: Rivals or Clash of Clans, with some interesting animated design and cartoon-like explosions. Lots of vintage throwbacks (Devilfish and the Skystorm helicopter to name a few) and I think there is some really fun potential to be had here.
Check out the Full Force News Burst I recorded with Chris below, some neat insight into the game play and characters here!
Yes, I’m a little late to the table on this one, what with new G.I. Joe writer Paul Allor sharing plenty of #GIJonday images on his Twitter account, but for anyone who isn’t already aware, IDW Publishing is launching a brand new G.I. Joe title this September!
Looking at things from the perspective of COBRA ruling the world, this new series sees the G.I. Joe team taking to the streets, fighting back against the power of COBRA Commander and the ruling class. So far, the designs look like a lot of fun, taking some obvious cues from the vintage looks, but adding a nice little twist to things.
The ashcan has also been released, which has revealed the first few pages of the comic. It’s available for Pre-Order now through Diamond and your favorite comic stores, so show some support for G.I. Joe… by the sounds of things, they’re up against a wall!
Check out some of the images below, and follow Paul Allor on Twitter for some of the latest reveals.
Well, it’s been an interesting several months, I’ll give you that.
To tell the truth, I’ve written this post many times since last August, and deleted it many times, simply because I’m a bit stubborn and reluctant to accept defeat. And to a point, when it comes to GeneralsJoes, I’ve had to (temporarily) accept defeat.
A few years back, I accepted an offer from the owner of YoJoe to host GeneralsJoes on their infrastructure to reduce hosting fees, and also agreed to a small monthly stipend for the immense amount of work that goes into writing the reviews and posting news.
Well, without getting in the muck too deep, the monthly stipend never really materialized fully and while I was happy to let GeneralsJoes live on the YoJoe servers, it didn’t save me a whole lot of work or money in the long run.
Fast forward to last year, when YoJoe was bought by a new corporation– who promptly cut off all FTP access.
For anyone who isn’t in the know, without FTP access I essentially cannot upload images, download images, or access much of my old content. GeneralsJoes is, essentially, stuck in its current state. I cannot migrate it to my own host, I cannot post new reviews, I cannot post new blogs or news stories (at least if I want to include images).
I have repeatedly sent requests for this access to be restored and have been basically told “sorry”. It is what it is.
But my purpose here isn’t to talk crap about the new YoJoe owners, my purpose here is to start “fresh” (or as fresh as possible). With a new mobile game incoming, movie news starting to flutter to the surface, and frequent podcast updates with The Full Force, I have decided to “reboot” GeneralsJoes so to speak. All of the archival data will remain at the old URL (in the menu up above for helpful navigation) but I’ll be posting as much new content here at GeneralsJoesReborn as possible. Will it ever be as frequent or as current as GeneralsJoes was back in the day? Probably not, but I’m going to have some fun with it anyway.
Maybe I’m jumping the gun here, but big thanks to skinny on Twitter who pointed me in the direction of a concept artist named Juan Richard Feliz, who has posted some very interesting Visual Development art for a mystery project entitled G.I. Joe Squads. There is no real information about what this is for (whether it’s even work-for-hire professional work or his own experiments) but judging by other work throughout the site, he seems to be a concept artist for mobile and video games.
Several pieces of art are visible, including some really great, fun looking concepts for characters like Duke, Deep Six, Scarlett, Doc, Lady Jaye, Snake Eyes, COBRA Commander, Destro, Zarana, Baroness, Serpentor, and a COBRA B.A.T. Not sure about anyone else, but these designs are kinda right up my alley.
There are also some images of backdrops or scenery, which also seems to lend credence to the fact that these may be video game or mobile game related. Check out all of the nifty concept art over at Juan Richard Feliz’s website, and I’ve also mirrored the images below. Cool stuff, be interesting to see what (if anything) comes of it.
