Sad Day for ‘Transformers’ and ‘G.I. Joe’ Fans as Paramount Kills Long-Awaited Crossover Movie

For decades, two of the biggest toy franchises of the 1980s have lived side by side on Hasbro’s shelves, and fans have spent years dreaming of seeing them collide on the big screen. The ‘Transformers‘/’G.I. Joe’ crossover movie has been a rumor, a promise and a punchline in equal measure. Fans have been waiting more than a decade since producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura first said in 2013 that Paramount was planning one.

The idea never fully went away. The crossover was sidelined for years before Paramount began actively developing it again in 2021, and ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ in 2023 teased it with a post-credits scene in which Noah Diaz was approached by a G.I. Joe recruiter. Paramount officially announced the project at CinemaCon in 2024, hired Derek Connolly to write it, and Chris Hemsworth was reportedly circling the lead human role.

Now the dream is over. On Oct. 1, Paramount cast Bradley Cooper as Duke in Danny McBride’s new ‘G.I. Joe‘ film, and Deadline broke the news with a heartbreaking caveat. The crossover with ‘Transformers’ is no longer in development at Paramount.

McBride’s film has been “uncoupled” from the crossover, and Paramount’s press release simply calls it a reimagining of the franchise with plot details under wraps. Reports suggest it follows Cooper’s Duke and a squad of Joes in Springfield, a town secretly run by Cobra. The announcement ends years of speculation, though some fans on X said they weren’t surprised given the lack of updates.

The crossover lost momentum amid a string of setbacks for the Hasbro movies. ‘Snake Eyes’ fizzled in 2021 and failed to turn a profit, and ‘Transformers One’ grossed just $129.4 million despite strong reviews. Its director later said that Paramount Animation had no interest in a sequel.

McBride’s own pitch helps explain the shift. He initially pitched a movie about the Dreadnoks, a niche corner of the franchise, and Paramount told him the franchise first needed to be relaunched. In other words, ‘G.I. Joe’ needs a healthy foundation of its own before it can team up with anyone else.

Corporate upheaval didn’t help either. Anthony Ramos, who starred in ‘Rise of the Beasts,’ revealed last year that the Paramount and Skydance merger created a lot of uncertainty around the project.

Cooper is taking over a role previously played by Channing Tatum. McBride is directing the film from a script he co-wrote with Jeff Fradley and John Carcieri, and it will be among the first ‘G.I. Joe’ features under the new Paramount Skydance regime.

‘Transformers’ isn’t vanishing either. ‘It: Welcome to Derry’ co-creator Jason Fuchs is reportedly writing a new film that continues Noah Diaz’s story, just without the Joes waiting at the end of it. Rumors of Michael Bay’s return are also swirling, and Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has made clear that getting the franchise back on track is a priority. The ‘Transformers’ series has earned $5.2 billion to date.

Still, it is hard not to feel a pang for the crossover that might have been, with Optimus Prime and Duke finally sharing a screen.

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