Transformers Producer Teases When to Expect G.I. Joe Crossover Movie

While some franchises stake their claim to release dates that are years away, this isn't the case with either the Transformers or G.I. Joe live-action franchises, leaving audiences to speculate about when filmmakers will make good on the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts tease that a crossover was on the horizon. Complicating the development of any projects are the current writers' and actors' strikes that are impacting all of Hollywood, with Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura confirming that, at this point, the crossover might not debut until 2026. The producer also confirmed that the plan was for writers to start developing a film, but no substantial development had been made on the script when the strike started.

"We were about to start a script when the writers' strike happened. So, our hope was we were going to have it for 2025, but I think the longer the strike goes on, the more it puts it in 2026," di Bonaventura confirmed with Sci-Fi & Fantasy Gazette.

Also complicating matters are the timelines of the respective franchises, as 2018's Bumblebee took place in 1987 while Rise of the Beasts unfolded in 1994, both of which were before the events of the original Transformers movie in 2007. Also complicating matters is that the last film in the live-action G.I. Joe franchise, 2021's Snake Eyes, was a prequel to 2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

Regardless of the narrative complications, the producer confirmed that it would be G.I. Joe characters getting integrated into the Transformers films.

"Like every other Transformers movie, the ingredients of the movie is humans and robots get together to stop the villain. The Joes are going to be part of the ingredients now," di Bonaventura explained. "We're not going into the Joe world, they're coming into our world. So, if you think about it that way, I think that's the closest thing to the plan that we have. We now have to figure out the plot we want to do, et cetera, but they will be an active participant, if you would, a few of the characters, in trying to stop the bad guy."

Even though we might be a ways off from the crossover coming to fruition, di Bonaventura recently confirmed that such an opportunity has been in the works for quite some time.

"We've talked about it since the beginning of the franchise because the fans have been like, 'Come on, when you are going to do Joe?!,' and the truth of the matter is there's so many great Transformers characters that we didn't feel like we needed to rush and do G.I. Joe," the producer revealed to ComicBook.com back in June. "But you also want an organic way ootherwise it feels like a cynical exercise."

He added, "What happened here was by creating a character, [Anthony Ramos's] character, that can't get a job. The world is not easy on him and at the end of this movie, he gets offered the greatest job ever. That's really how it happened, we finally found a way to organically bring it in."

Stay tuned for details on the future of the Transformers and G.I. Joe franchises.

Are you looking forward to the crossover? Let us know in the comments!