Transformers/G.I. Joe Crossover Movie Announced by Paramount

It’s official: Paramount Pictures is rolling out a live-action Transformers / G.I. Joe crossover movie. During the studio’s presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Paramount Pictures president and CEO Brian Robbins also announced that Lorenzo di Bonaventura — the prolific producer behind the studio’s toy-based blockbuster Transformers franchise and the G.I. Joe films — has extended his deal beyond the upcoming animated movie Transformers One (which released its first title treatment). The as-yet-untitled Transformers/G.I. Joe movie is a sequel to last summer’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which ended with the secret government organization recruiting Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos) — and his alien Autobot allies — into G.I. Joe.

Transformers franchise producers Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay, Mark Vahradian, Tom DeSanto, and Don Murphy are on board for the new movie.

In February, di Bonaventura told ComicBook that “we are going to deliver on the promise we made,” referring to the Beasts stinger scene teasing a crossover between the robots in disguise and the real American heroes.

“We’ve talked about it since the beginning of the franchise becausethe fans have been like, ‘Come on, when you are going to do Joe?!’” di Bonaventura said. “The truth of the matter is there’s so many great Transformers charactersthat we didn’t feel like we needed to rush and do G.I. Joe. But you also want an organic way, otherwise itfeels like a cynical exercise.”

The two Hasbro franchises first crossed over in 1987’s G.I. Joe and the Transformers, a four-issue limited series published by Marvel Comics. That series saw Autobots like Optimus Prime and Bumblebee work with the G.I. Joe Team — including Hawk, Roadblock, and Snake-Eyes — to battle Cobra and the evil Decepticons.

In 2003, Image Comics published the six-issue series G.I. Joe vs. The Transformers, with Devil’s Due Publishing releasing sequels in 2004, 2006, and 2007. IDW published a retro-style series, titled Transformers vs. G.I. Joe, between 2014 and 2016. Last year, Robert Kirkman’s Skybound launched the Energon Universe, a shared Transformers and G.I. Joe comic book universe spanning new ongoing and limited series.

Paramount also gave exhibitors in attendance at CinemaCon a taste of the CG-animated Transformers One — an origin story featuring the voices of Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson Jon Hamm, Keegan-Michael Key, and Laurence Fishburne —and announced new Scary Movie and Star Trek movies, plus the R-rated, live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin.