The new G.I. Joe movie just leveled up, and now we know who those “pretty interesting people” lining up for it are.
Insider Daniel Richtman reports via his Patreon that Bradley Cooper, Chris Pratt, and Walton Goggins are all circling the film, and that Danny McBride isn’t just writing it, he’s directing it.
“Danny McBride is writing and directing the next G.I. Joe movie, which will have a smaller scale and follow a squad in a town invaded by Cobra,” reports Richtman. “I can confirm that Bradley Cooper is being eyed for one of the main roles, along with Chris Pratt and Walton Goggins.”
The directing news has since been made official, with The Hollywood Reporter confirming McBride will make his feature directorial debut on the film, so Richtman is already one-for-one on this report. The casting names remain rumor for now.
The Cast McBride Was Teasing
Just days ago, McBride confirmed to Josh Horowitz that his script is finished, that Paramount is “fired up,” and that cameras could roll next year. He also dropped this tease:
“We have some pretty interesting people lining up to be in it, too. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but it looks to be like it’s going to be pretty fun.”
Cooper, Pratt, and Goggins would more than qualify.
The Goggins connection is the easiest dot to connect. He’s a McBride regular, having stolen scenes as Baby Billy across all four seasons of The Righteous Gemstones, the same show McBride wrote with his G.I. Joe co-writers Jeff Fradley and John Carcieri. And Goggins has never been hotter coming off The White Lotus and Fallout.
Cooper and Pratt bring the four-quadrant star power. Both are Marvel alums (Rocket and Star-Lord), and both fit the bill for the classic Joe roster. McBride confirmed the film follows Duke and a group of Joes, so the immediate question becomes: which one suits up as Duke? Pratt has the square-jawed all-American soldier thing down after The Terminal List, while Cooper could just as easily go the other direction entirely. A Cobra Commander would be the juiciest role in the movie.
Smaller Scale, Set In Cobra’s Town
Richtman’s smaller-scale, squad-in-a-Cobra-town description lines up exactly with what McBride revealed: the movie is set in Springfield, the town from the Larry Hama comics that is secretly run entirely by Cobra.
“It grounds G.I. Joe. It’s not a comedy. It’s like kind of suspense and action,” McBride said.
That’s a deliberate contrast with the bloated CGI spectacle of the previous G.I. Joe films: a contained suspense-thriller setup that lets the characters carry it, then scales up from there.
The Franchise Launch Paramount Wanted
McBride directing makes this his movie top to bottom, and it confirms Paramount is treating this as the real franchise launch. As we reported, the studio has two G.I. Joe movies in development as part of its big event film strategy. McBride even revealed his Dreadnoks spinoff pitch was put on hold until the mainline film launches the franchise first.
Stack it all up (classic characters, comics-accurate lore, no irony, and now legitimate A-list stars circling) and this is the Ellisons’ event-movie philosophy executing exactly as our sources described.
Yo Joe.
