Characters like Scarlett and Baroness in Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins are intended to set up future G.I. Joe movies. Hasbro property G.I Joe previously made two attempts to cultivate a cinematic franchise, but efforts to continue petered out following the lukewarm reception to 2013’s G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Now Snake Eyes aims revive the series with an origin tale centered on the titular mute ninja (Henry Golding). In taking an unconventional approach to the character – that is, by showing his face and having him speak – Snake Eyes arrives with big future plans.
The film, directed by Robert Schwentke, follow Snake Eyes as he trains with the Arashikage clan on the way to joining up with the Joes. Though much of the film will be centered on Golding’s hero, there will be plenty of familiar G.I. Joe characters populating his story. This includes his friend-turned-enemy Storm Shadow (Andrew Koji), his future ally Scarlett (Samara Weaving), and Cobra operative Baroness (Úrsula Corberó). In regards to the last two, fans should be warned ahead of time that there are bigger plans ahead for Scarlett and Baroness, so don’t expect as much with them in Snake Eyes.
Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura recently spoke with Empire to break down all the new developments from the latest Snake Eyes trailer. It’s clear di Bonaventura and his team already had eyes on the future when making Snake Eyes, since he said Scarlett and Baroness were added to the film to have expanded parts down the line. Di Bonaventura said:
“Snake Eyes is a window into how eventually he joins the Joes, so neither Scarlett nor Baroness are the biggest characters, it’s more setting up that they exist in this universe and if we’re lucky enough to make a sequel, that will expand more into a Joe movie rather than a Snake movie. I don’t want to mislead anybody into thinking they have giant parts – they have solid parts where you get to intro those characters and it provides the way for the movie to, I’ll say, break out of being just a samurai movie. You see Cobra a bit, but through those characters. They enter the world of the samurai rather than us entering the world of the Joe.”
It sounds like, when crafting Snake Eyes, Schwentke and di Bonaventura aimed to take the MCU approach. That is, they’ve chosen to introduce familiar characters on a smaller scale, which can then open the world up further in the future. This has been the MCU’s approach from the very beginning; for example, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) was introduced in Iron Man 2 in a supporting capacity before going on to become one of the major players in The Avengers. Scarlett and Baroness are on a similar path for the G.I. Joe world.
This also suggests that Snake Eyes won’t get too bogged down with table-setting. Too often when a movie has franchise aspirations, it packs the plot with countless teases for the future. While Snake Eyes is bound to have a few Easter eggs (and is already guaranteed to be saving the title character’s major injury for later), it will hopefully remain centered on the origin story it is telling. If Snake Eyes is a hit, there will be plenty of time to tell other tales down the road.
Source: Empire
- Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins (2021)Release date: Jul 23, 2021
About The Author
