New G.I. Joe spin-off film to focus on Snake Eyes

Actor Henry Golding from "Crazy Rich Asians" is reportedly being considered for the lead role in 'Snake Eyes', which will tell the muted character's complex backstory. The ninja was played by actor Ray Park (Darth Maul in Star Wars) for the first two 'G.I. Joe' movies."

 

When Ray Park portrayed Snake Eyes, I don't recall seeing him remove the mask. Here's a behind-the-scenes photo of Ray without the mask.


Snake Eyes unmasked as shown in the comics. A couple deluxe action figure variations (with masks removed) from the early 90s also depicted him as having a large scar around the eye and blonde hair, although I don't recall either of the eyes bulging.

Another comic representation of Snake Eyes unmasked:

 

The Baroness had some doctor fix his face just so she could mess it up again for revenge or something ridiculous like that. Didnt work out. Snake Eyes got new face and new costume out of the deal. Baroness and Destro ran off together to start over.

 

https://io9.gizmodo.com/report-crazy-rich-asians-henry-golding-could-be-g-i-j-1837243702



The similarities between this actor and the comic book rendition is uncanny.

 

Cool. I watched the first two a while back. I like them.

 

will be looking forward to adding this to the collection...enjoyed the franchise...

 

What was so wrong with the original story of a blonde haired white guy who was in Vietnam as a soldier - gets disfigured and then basically becomes a ninja at some point after Vietnam.
Snake Eyes also knew Storm Shadow in Vietnam too.
So for a white guy to get in with a clan of ninjas and learn the culture and art of said fighting skill it was an interesting clash of culture to experience for the character (I suppose) and for us readers of the comic to discover how he made that transition from a regular soldier to this ninja (working for GI Joe) with connections to on again/off again Cobra operative Storm Shadow.

What was so wrong with that story line that they had to change Snake Eyes' ethnicity?

 

Hollywood doesn't care about respecting the source material.

 

I hate revisionism for PC culture. Lame.

 

GI Joe in the 80's had other asian characters that did martial arts too - like Quick Kick.

 

PC Culture?

 

A lot of it almost assuredly is a result of the social media fallout from Marvel's Iron Fist, the television series on Netflix. Many Marvel fans on social media were unaware that Danny (Iron Fist) has always been a white man in the comics, complained bitterly of whitewashing and cultural appropriation in the show.

I wish I was making these things up but that is simply Hollywood today in 2019.

 

I'm more concerned that they didn't get a guy known for martial arts and action for this. But maybe it means they want to take the character in a less one-dimensional direction.
I have no problem with the change of race. The idea of the white guy going to Japan and learning martial arts from Japanese people, and then becoming the best at it and kicking everyone's asses, is getting a bit old for me. There's nothing in Snake Eyes' character or backstory that demands "whiteness."

 

Actor Channing Tatum had originally signed a 3-picture deal to star in the G.I. Joe film series and specifically asked if he could play Snake Eyes. Of course, he ended up playing Duke, one of the most prominent characters in the G.I. Joe universe.

Honestly, I wish they would've considered Henry Golding to play Storm Shadow instead of using him for Snake Eyes. The current talk is they're planning to use actor Andrew Koji to play Storm Shadow in this film. If the goal is to start from scratch with a new series of films, then it would make sense for the writers to pretend the 2 previous G.I. Joe films never existed. However, these articles have referred to this film as a spin-off, which makes me uncertain as to whether or not they're forgetting the 2 previous films.
'G.I. Joe' Spinoff 'Snake Eyes' Finds Its Storm Shadow in 'Warrior' Star

Andrew Koji

 

That isn't really true - Snake Eyes as a white man was a gaijin and all that entails in Japanese culture. His rise to prominence in the ninja clan as a gaijin is what drove Storm Shadow, his rival in the clan, down a dark and twisted path.

They are literally going to have to change Storm Shadow's backstory because Snake Eyes is now Asian, presumably Japanese.

 

Nick Fury...springs to mind.
Tsk tsk.

 

Loved the first 2 GI Joe movies.

 

I might have to check out the G.I. Joe movies. I guess I just assumed they were pretty lame. Growing up playing with the original G.I. Joe action figures (I still have G.I. Joe in his space suit with the space capsule!), I didn't like the direction that they took the (shrunken) figures in the 80s. They went from realistic soldier action figure to fantasy hero with over-the-top bad guys.

I need to just get over that if the movies are entertaining.

 

Don't build them up. They're not that good. Lots of advertising via product placement and plenty of over the top idiocy.

 

Well, I really enjoyed Battleship which fits that description to a T. AC/DC didn't hurt.

 

I don't recall that at all in the comics. Was the word "gaijin" actually used there? I think S-E being just better than S-S would be enough to make him bitter. But how dark and twisted was his path? I thought he was mainly doing whatever he did only to track down his uncle's killer. He didn't become evil or join Cobra just to get back at Snake-Eyes. Forgive me if I'm forgetting Storm Shadow ever ranting about "white people". I don't recall race having anything to do with what happened.

 

Definitely. Do you remember the 1998 Nick Fury film which starred David Hasselhoff? It was filmed in Canada and Stan Lee didn't make an appearance like he was known to do in some many other live action Marvel projects. I do think Samuel L. Jackson is tougher and more believable for the role, but it's hard to think of a Marvel character David could portray with the exception of Captain Ultra and it's unlikely we'll be seeing that character in film or television anytime soon.

 

No I never seen that version.
Like SLJ but miscast, or deserves better script involvement with future MCU films.

 

I grew up on The comics as well as the toys and even the cartoon. They should do a parody of the cartoon where lasers and bullets are flying everywhere but nobody gets killed. Seems like parachutes were a first option in dogfights. Anyway, it would be funny to make a comedy out of it if they’re going to change back stories and origins. There was a tv show that did a spoof on the cartoon some years back. Can’t remember which one.