Okay this is getting silly. Next time Hasbro does this, I’m going to give them 24 hours before typing this up so I don’t have to write three separate articles for each series of better images that we get! Gah.
I’ve seen the images. I would imagine pretty much everyone has. I’m certain at this point things are pretty doom and gloom. Five points of articulation, reused vehicles, deth of teh line, etc…
While I’m staying far away from the whole “Deth of teh line!” crowed, I will admit up front I am a bit punched in the gut by the restricted articulation on the vehicle drivers. I won’t say it’s completely unexpected. Anyone who has been listening to the Whats on Joe Mind podcast should remember that I’ve been talking about a scaled back movie line and about the potential for reduced articulation for months now. So hopefully folks who have been listening to that aren’t taken so far aback. But I will admit, even though I’ve been saying it, I can’t help but feel a bit of wind knocked out the sails. There’s just something about seeing that familiar visage of Snake Eyes with only 5 points of articulation that just doesn’t look… right. That’s NOT how he’s supposed to look.
That being said, I’m not writing this off as doom and gloom. Aside from the vehicle drivers there are plenty of things to cheer about, and I’m going to bore the hell out of everyone by regurgitating them all right here. Not only that, but I’m going crazy. I’m going figure by figure and vehicle by vehicle. No, I do not have a life. Let’s do this.
Why is it a landmark? Well, if you count all of our regular episodes, plus all of the special editions, we have, from an episodic standpoint, now become the longest running G.I. Joe focused podcast on the internet! We, of course, only have all of the listeners to thank for motivating us to continue pushing out this train wreck week after week…
To celebrate, not only did we get a barrage of voicemails and not only did we talk to Jason from Atomic Martians, but another Jason joined us on the episode this week…none other than Jason Marsden! You might know him better as Duke from G.I. Joe: Renegades!
Knowing how much of a Renegades fanboy I am, you can imagine this was a huge treat for me and for the podcast, and we can’t thank Mr. Marsden enough for sparing an hour of his very busy life to join us on the show.
In return, locate him on Twitter and give him a follow to hear what latest projects he’s got going on, including a new original web series, Transformers Rescue Bots (airing February 18th on The Hub) and a lot more!
Check out the latest episode on our Podbean page or hit up the embedded player below. Once again, a big thanks to Jason Marsden for joining us on the show, look forward to some more great guests for 2012!
Folks who follow myself or the rest of the What’s on Joe Mind crew on Twitter discovered last night that we had a very cool guest during that recording. We had a chance to speak with Jason Marsden, who is none other than Duke in G.I. Joe: Renegades!
To say this was a pleasure for me would be a drastic understatement, and as Gary deals with the editing process there were some neat details that I wanted to reveal to some folks, just because I think they’re cool talking points, and also because they add some interesting insight.
First and foremost, Jason Marsden actually found out that G.I. Joe: Renegades would be going on “hiatus” before the show even began airing. This is pretty stunning to me, and is a perfect example of the mismanagement of this property on Hasbro’s part. Mr. Marsden did confirm that the show was pulled in order to bring something more in line with the G.I. Joe: Retaliation film, and he actually sited Duke’s “removal” as a component of that. Is this confirmation of Duke’s death in the film? Not necessarily, but an interesting point of discussion.
Marsden also revealed that G.I. Joe: Renegades actually had terrific ratings and it was one of The Hub’s top rated shows during it’s run. He suspects that they weren’t sure it would be so well-received, but by the time it began receiving critical and audience acclaim, the ship had sailed. He believes there are still some very strong supporters of G.I. Joe: Renegades at The Hub who are fighting to bring it back in some form, but wasn’t sure where it stood currently, and he hadn’t heard anything specific about it.
One of the coolest things he did share with us was that he had read some early stuff about Season 2, and apparently Duke was going to go to “a pretty dark place”, and seemed to have a personal vendetta against Cobra Commander. This sounds like an awesome twist, and only served to make me more depressed that we’ve seen all of what we’re likely to see from the series.
For the record, he was lukewarm on the treatment of Duke from Channing Tatum in the Rise of Cobra film, but he is extremely excited to see G.I. Joe: Retaliation. He immediately recognized the ties to the Renegades series and can understand (to a degree) what motivated Hasbro to rethink things a bit.
All things told, it was a fantastic interview. I loved every minute of recording it, and I think you guys will love listening to it. It should be posted later this week, so keep your eyes peeled here and at our Podbean Page to listen to the entire interview in it’s 60 minute glory. You won’t be disappointed.
I’m going to start sounding like a broken record. Through this blog and the What’s on Joe Mind podcast, I’ve been pretty adamant that Channing Tatum (and thus Duke) was going to likely have a smaller role in G.I. Joe: Retaliation. With both Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Bruce Willis making a splash with the film sequel, it seemed like there would be less and less room for another headliner.
Now, he has spoken with the folks at Crave Online, and while he doesn’t come out and reveal anything specifically, he maintains that he was absent for a lot of the New Orleans shooting, and didn’t really interact with folks like Elodie Young, Johnson, or Bruce Willis. Actually, when asked about Elodie specifically, he says:
“She’s insanely beautiful in her movements, just elegant like I don’t even know. I wish I would’ve stayed to get to watch her fight though, do her scenes. She’s a very good athlete for sure.”
Which confirms my suspicions earlier that he wasn’t even in New Orleans for much of the shooting. Crave also asked him about transitioning the “lead” to some other big name stars, and his response was that he was “…very, very happy with the arrangement for sure”.
What does that say to me? Just further confirmation that Channing Tatum is definitely stepping away from the G.I. Joe motion picture franchise, and if the trailer is any indication, the character of Duke may be going with him. Definitely something to watch.
The HubTVNetwork YouTube page in conjunction with their Facebook Fan Page has posted the clip that was debuted at Toy Fair yesterday!
Tomax and Xamot make their G.I. Joe: Renegades debut in “Brothers of Light”, airing 6:00pm on March 11th! Check out the embedded video below.
The Hub Network Facebook Fan Page has a ton of great G.I. Joe: Renegades, Transformers: Prime, and much more great content as well! Check it out now!
