Even though it’s been sometime since we’ve heard of any activity regarding the big screen G.I. Joe franchise, it ain’t dead yet. According to the folks at The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount and Hasbro Toys are developing a new G.I. Joe spinoff film. And this one will feature Chuckles. No, not as in it’ll be funny (though it might be!), but the character of Chuckles, who was a popular member of the team in its later years. He’s said to not be the main character for the film, but he will be a part of the ensemble for the first time in live-action.
The current as-yet untitled movie is being written by Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec. The pair recently wrote the most recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies as well as Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. No word yet on which other G.I. Joe members are set to appear, or if the movie is going to be in continuity with the previous two films. Given that Paramount and Hasbro essentially rebooted the Transformers franchise with the excellent Bumblebee last year, they might take the same route with this latest iteration of G.I. Joe.
So who the heck is Chuckles, you might ask? Introduced both in the toy line and in the popular Marvel comics back in 1987, Sergeant Philip M. Provost was an undercover specialist from Little Rock, Arkansas. Despite appearing as an action figure and in the comics, he never actually made it into the weekday afternoon animated series. He did appear once though in cartoon form, in the animated G.I. Joe: The Movie.
This isn’t the first G.I. Joe spinoff to have been announced. A few years back, they announced a Snake Eyes spin-off, based on one of the most popular characters on the team. But for one reason or the other, it never got off the ground. Here’s hoping Chuckles has better luck than Snake Eyes did.
Images: Hasbro Toys