Let’s get this out of the way, right off the bat. Stephen Sommers is not directing G.I. Joe 2. For some reason MTV asked the Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner about him anyway, and he was noncommittal. But Sommers has already turned the thing down. So here’s the latest on the sequel: They’re still working on it.
The latest news really boils down to nothing more than that. They have a script and according to the same aforementioned Hasbro exec it contains a “really great idea”. Apparently it’s not “really great” enough that they’re in any rush to get this done. Word is that the director search is on and last week we got a list of contenders, but none of the cast is a lock for the next movie and, since it’s already been nearly 2 years since Rise of Cobra, clearly they aren’t in any rush.
As for that “really great” idea, Goldner reveals this much about it: “In many ways, it'll be great for the people who saw the first one, but you don't need to have studied every element of the first one to enjoy the second. We've made sure that that's the case.” Apparently it will have some tie-in to the ending of the first G.I. Joe though. “Obviously, we know coming out of the first film that the president is an impostor… You might begin with the knowledge of having your president as an impostor. What would that mean? From that, you can tell a very big story without only having to rely on the chronology of the first film.”
I’m not sure the story really matters. The first movie was really all about just throwing a bunch of CGI gunk at the screen and having fun with it. For G.I. Joe fans it was sort of like the holocaust. For everyone else, it was light, airy, blockbuster fun. Expect more of the same, no matter who directs it.
