'Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins' Delayed To 2021
Paramount Pictures recently pushed back the release of both A Quiet Place Part II and Top Gun: Maverick, two anticipated sequels that already had their release dates delayed previously thanks to the coronavirus pandemic shutting down movie theaters around the world. Now the studio is delaying another one of their major theatrical releases intended for later this year with Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins vacating its October 2020 date for a release sometime in 2021.
Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins was originally slated for release in March of this year, but in June of 2019, the studio pushed it back to October 23, 2020. Now it seems the coronavirus pandemic has impacted the movie's potential release this year because The Hollywood Reporter heard from Hasbro, the company that owns the rights to G.I. Joe, that the movie is being delayed to an unknown release date in 2021. Brian Goldner, Hasbro's chairman and CEO, announced the delay during a discussion about the toy company's second quarter financial results.
"We're working out the specifics with Paramount," Goldner said. But he didn't offer a new window for when Snake Eyes may be rescheduled for 2021.
Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins stars Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) in the origin story of the titular ninja who appeared in both G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra in 2009 and the sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation in 2013. Though it is not clear if the movie will have any narrative ties to the previous G.I. Joe movies, the movie will explore the friendship turned rivalry between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, another ninja in the G.I. Joe world who will be played by Andrew Koji. Robert Schwentke (RED) is directing the movie.
Hasbro just recently bought the production banner eOne in order to expand their film and television production efforts based on the various brands they own. That means they have 100 TV projects in development and 40 movie projects in the works too, including 32 projects based on Hasbro properties. Thankfully, eOne's animation division has been able to stay up and running, so not all their movies and TV shows are out of commission. But like every studio and production company, they need to get back to work soon.
Even though movie theaters in international markets are starting to open, the United States is still making frustrating decisions in our fight against COVID-19, which means more movies intended for release this fall and even this winter are being delayed until 2021. This debacle is also pushing back the potential start of production in the United States as COVID-19 cases continue to spread in many states across the country. If this continues, we might not see movie theaters open until next year, just as one analyst recently predicted, which is probably why Paramount is pushing everything back that was meant to come out later this year. Will other studios follow suit in the coming weeks? We'll keep you posted.