After years of underwhelming installments from Michael Bay, the Transformers movie franchise appears to be hitting its stride. After Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ surprise conclusion, which teased a future G.I. Joe crossover, fans have been buzzing about the long-awaited event. With Transformers One receiving early positive buzz, franchise producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura confirms the live-action crossover will be filming soon.

In an interview with Collider promoting Transformers One ahead of its September 20th release, Di Bonaventura detailed how the animated prequel’s focus on the Autobots and Decepticons will bring more depth to the characters in future movies such as the live-action G.I. Joe crossover.

“Well, we’re going, again, subject to success, we’re going to do a sequel to this, and there will be an animated version, and it will exist completely separately to whatever we do live-action. The next live-action movie will be a crossover. Where it will be particularly affected is the fact that we now know what these robots are capable of emotionally in a way. So we’re going to have to figure out how to create that room, that we can afford that, and create a story that you can take more advantage of that. So one of the things that I’m particularly interested in doing, and we’re still in the development phase, so nothing is by any means written in stone, but I think we need to do more now from the robot point of view in the live-action because that’s the only way you’re really going to get inside them.”

While Transformers has enjoyed healthy box office takings across seven theatrical releases since 2007, the G.I. Joe franchise has had a harder time capturing lightning in a bottle. 2009’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was largely panned by critics despite earning $302 million worldwide. Its 2013 sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, fared slightly better with audiences, while the 2021 soft-reboot prequel Snake-Eyes was an all-around disappointment.

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Though Di Bonaventura has not confirmed if actors from the previous movies will reprise their roles, he confirmed that the Joes will receive as much care on screen as the Robots in Disguise.

“Instead of them reacting to humans or reacting to the human plot, what is their drive, has to be part of that story now. So it’s going to be complicated because now the hardest thing about a lot of franchise movies is how many characters there are, and the more characters you try to manage, the harder it is to make a bunch of really good ones. You kind of got to keep going, keep it smaller, keep it smaller. So we’ll be in that process for a while where we’ll start with a bunch of Joes and a bunch of Transformers and I’ll say, regular humans, and then you’re going to do this. That’s kind of where we are right now, is trying to put the larger thing in place. The trick in this one, like we were talking about here, in trying to find that tone and balance is like, ‘Well, how much of the Joes do you want? And how much of the Transformers do you want?’”

Derek Connolly (Jurassic World) is currently penning the screenplay for the untitled Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover movie. Additionally, Transformers One’s Chris Hemsworth is in talks to star in an undisclosed role.

Are you excited to see the Transformers meet G.I. Joe on the big screen? Let us know in the comments.

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