The Transformers franchise may not be the billion-dollar box office juggernaut it once was, but Paramount Pictures is clearly looking to return to those glory days with some upcoming reboots.
The hope is that the G.I. Joe franchise could also get back on track with the release of Snake Eyes, but is it not about time both Hasbro IPs are brought together for a major crossover event? Talking to Uproxx, longtime producer of both properties, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, explained why he believes this becoming a reality is now "inevitable."
"You know, the truth of matter is, the studio has always been against that," he admitted. "Every regime that’s been at Paramount is against it because it’s taking two franchises and making them one, but I think it’s inevitable."
"[It’s] funny, Steven Caple, who’s directing Transformers right now, is a huge G.I. Joe fan, too," di Bonaventura adds. "And he was like, 'Why aren’t you doing that?' Everyone was like, 'Well, try to make a Transformers movie really good. Then we’ll talk about that.' Maybe Steven will be the one to crack through because he loves them both so much."
It makes sense that Paramount wants to get both franchises right before bringing them together, though it's interesting to see how confident the veteran producer is in it one day happening.
Clearly, it's something di Bonaventura wants, but for now, the studio obviously feels differently. The hope was Snake Eyes would relaunch the G.I. Joe franchise, but early reactions have been mostly negative - no great surprise when longtime fans were turned off from the start when such sweeping changes were made to the title character.
We'll see how those Transformers reboots do.