G.I. Joe 3 is apparently stuck in production hell because Dwayne Johnson doesn’t have enough time to film it. But the bigger question is: Do any of us even care about a third G.I. Joe movie?
Credit: Paramount
LRM recently chatted with actor Byung-Hen Lee, who played Storm Shadow, about whether Paramount was ever going to move forward with G.I. Joe 3, which was first announced back in 2013. According to Lee, there are still talks of making the third film, but it looks like Johnson’s schedule is one of the things that’s holding it back.
“I heard from the studio that there’s a possibility to do the third one, but I think they’re waiting for the actors’ schedules,” Lee said. “They’re arranging the schedules for the actors, especially Dwayne Johnson.”
You can hardly blame the guy for being preoccupied. Johnson is one of the busiest actors in Hollywood right now. This year he has Moana, and he’s starring in four films next year alone: Fast 8, Baywatch, Jumanji and Journey 3: From the Earth to the Moon. He’s also joining the DCEU as Black Adam in Shazam.
Beyond that, it doesn’t seem worth it to make a third G.I. Joe film. The movies aren’t good and they didn’t even make back their budgets domestically. It’s likely they want to make the third film to appeal to international markets, where the first two movies fared much better (especially G.I. Joe: Retaliation, which made twice as much money overseas). That might guarantee a profit, but that certainly doesn’t mean Western audiences are going to care about it.
Director Jon Chu is set to helm the third film, which is being written by Evan Daughterty, who also penned Divergent and Snow White and the Huntsman. It’s been loosely set for a 2018 release date, but no word when (or if) it’s going to come out now. Honestly, that might be a blessing in disguise.
[LRM]