(Image: Pinterest, Paramount/Skydance)
The "G.I. Joe" film series, which announced a reboot back in February, has just been hit with a major casting shake-up. According to a report from Nexus Point News, Chris Hemsworth, who was originally slated to headline the project, has exited. Now, Bradley Cooper is reportedly in line to take over the lead role.
The new "G.I. Joe" is being directed by comedy star Danny McBride, who is also co-writing the script with his collaborators from the HBO series "The Righteous Gemstones," Jeff Fradley and John Carcieri. As McBride previously revealed, the new film will center on a G.I. Joe team infiltrating a small town that has been taken over as a base by the Cobra organization. Sources also indicate this will be a smaller-scale "G.I. Joe" movie compared to the previous three installments.
(Image: HBO)
Cooper previously co-starred with McBride in "Aloha" and also made a cameo in "The Righteous Gemstones." In addition to Cooper, McBride is reportedly looking to bring more of his famous friends on board. Entertainment scooper Daniel Richtman added in a report on his Patreon page that Chris Pratt and Walton Goggins are also on the wishlist.
Goggins is a regular on "The Righteous Gemstones" and also co-starred with McBride in the series "Vice Principals." Coincidentally, Goggins also had a small role years ago in "G.I. Joe: Retaliation."
(Image: Sony Pictures)
In an interview earlier this month, McBride teased that the new "G.I. Joe" will have a more realistic, suspenseful tone and is very likely to begin filming next year. He also confirmed that Duke will return as the central protagonist. If cast, Cooper would presumably play this new iteration of Duke.
It remains uncertain whether the new "G.I. Joe" will follow up on the post-credits tease from "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts," which set the stage for a big-screen crossover between the two major Hasbro IPs. The current reboot plan appears to be giving McBride and his team creative freedom, and McBride has not indicated any plans to connect with the "Transformers" franchise.
While Hemsworth was indeed attached to what was planned as a crossover film, the project has since undergone a complete creative overhaul with a new writing team. The version Cooper is being courted for is expected to be entirely different from the one Hemsworth was set to star in.