GI Joe is getting another reboot, but this time it's 'millennial'

It’s not even been a decade since the GI Joe franchise was last rebooted, but Hasbro, the global toy giant that owns it, is already aiming to reboot it again. This time, according to one of the bigwigs at its studio arm, it wants the series to take “a more millennial approach”.

"The world has changed, and I think you’re going to see GI Joe changing with it,” said Simon Waters. “There’s going to be a much more contemporary approach to the whole franchise, and that will allow us to develop different characters."

What that means, however, is anyone’s guess.

The popular ‘80s and ‘90s cartoon and toy line got its first taste of the Hollywood big time in 2009, with a flick called The Rise of Cobra, which like its 2013 sequel Retaliation, grossed more than $300 million worldwide. That’s a decent showing, but according to the LA Times, Hasbro – which basically owns every major toy franchise you can think of – would rather their army dolls were doing the same numbers as their other property Transformers, which have taken between $700 million and $1.1 billion across the four movies so far. 

Beyond the dreaded reboot, it seems as though Hasbro wants a piece of the other big-screen action – a Marvel-style cinematic universe. If all goes to plan, cinema goers might see themselves blessed by a series of movies which includes other Hasbro properties like Micronauts and MASK rubbing shoulders with Optimus Prime and the Joes.

A fifth Transformers film, The Last Knight, is coming out in June, with more planned, including a spin-off featuring the character Bumblebee.

Happily, though Hasbro has a My Little Pony movie in the pipeline, it isn’t slated to become part of any new shared universe.