Amazon Prime Videocould be bringing Hasbro’sG.I. Joeuniverse to the small screen. A live-action TV series about covert operations specialist Lady Jaye is currently in the works by the streaming service. While the series is currently planned as a standalone story for Jaye, it will connect to the largerG.I. Joeuniverse.
The character first appeared in a 1984 animated series and was turned into an action figure soon after. Lady Jaye was also introduced into theG.I. Joecomics in 1985 and their first on-screen appearance was in the 2013 feature filmG.I. Joe: Retaliation, portrayed by Adrianne Palicki. There is no confirmation on whether Palicki will be reprising her role as Jaye or if the studio will be bringing in a new face.
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Erik Oleson, who has had previous success as the showrunner of Amazon’sCarnival Rowand thethird season of Netflix’sDaredevil, has been brought on as showrunner for the Jaye-centered Amazon series. He will executive produce the series alongside Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who brought theG.I. Joeuniverse to the big screen. Oleson also served as the head writer and executive producer of Amazon’sThe Man in the High Castle, a series that depicted a fictional world in which the Nazis won World War II.
The idea forG.I. Joefirst came up in the early 1960s, when there weren’t many popular male toy figures. The 12-inch military figure was invented by Stan Westonand sold to Hasbrofor $100,000. The toy conglomerate introduced Government Issue Joe, orG.I. Joe, in 1964 and coined the term ‘action figure’ to market the figurines to the young male population. They assumed that young boys would not want to play with ‘dolls,’ even though theirJoefigurines had the same traits as Mattel’s popular Barbie doll.
Their figures went on to become a huge success, with Hasbro marketing multiple characters for the fourbranches of the militaryat the time. Over the years, Hasbro has changed tactics several times to appeal to their audience and has also managed to get a deal with Marvel to createcomic books based on the franchise’s characters, which are published to this day.
The franchise also made a transition to the big screen withG.I. Joe:The Rise of Cobrareleasing in 2009, starring Channing Tatum, followed by the sequelRetaliationin 2013led by Dwayne Johnson.Even though the films were poorly received by critics, the third film in the franchise,Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, with actor Henry Golding in the lead, is due to release this fall. With Jaye’s TV series connecting to theG.I. Joeuniverse, it remains to be seen if the series will also go the crossover route.
The G.I. Joeseries is being developed by Paramount Television Studios, eOne, and Skydance Television.
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