Paramount Pictures will work with Hasbro to bring some of the toy company’s most famous properties to the big screen, and they will all exist under one, big shared cinematic universe.
The five properties that will be included in the new shared universe will be G.I. Joe, Micronauts, ROM, Visionaries, and M.A.S.K (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand).
M.A.S.K. is a toy line that features common vehicles with the ability to transform into robots and armored vehicles to fight crime. Their slogan was “Illusion is the ultimate weapon.”
The Micronauts are a group of royal knights from the Microverse, a series of microscopic habitats that are linked together in the fashion of molecular chains. The Micronauts were originally published by Marvel Comics, and they fought alongside the likes of Cable, Black Cat, and the Fantastic Four. IDW is publishing a new Micronauts comic.
Visionaries is a toy line featuring magical knights from a far off planet where electricity has failed and the people are forced to rely on old magics. The toy line included a comic and a half-hour animated series.
ROM is a space knight who first debuted in Rom Spaceknight #1 in December of 1979. He was created by Bing McCoy, Bill Mantlo, and Sal Buscema. ROM was originally published under Marvel Comics, but IDW announced in 2015 they will be publishing an entirely new Rom comic book series.
Paramount and Hasbro have teamed up several times in the past, most famously for perhaps bringing the Transformers toy line to the big screen. The Transformer’s franchise has grossed $3.8 billion worldwide across four films, and the G.I. Joe films have grossed more than $675 million worldwide.
The report from The Hollywood Reporter does not state if the Transformers film will be included in the new shared universe. Recently, Akiva Goldsman was hired to head a writer’s room to hash out new ideas on how to increase the longevity of the Transformers film franchise, including potentially creating an entirely new shared universe featuring the Robots in Disguise.
Paramount Pictures will distribute the films while Allspark will produce. Allspark only film released so far is Jem and the Holograms, which was critically maligned and a commercial failure.
While Micronauts, ROM. Visionaries, and M.A.S.K. all sound like relics from the 1990s, it does seem that there could be some cool stories to be told in the present day. All of the properties seem to rely heavily on science. Coupled with the hyper-stylized versions of G.I. Joe and the films could easily fit together in a new shared universe.
However, given M.A.S.K.’s similarities to Transformers, it seems unlikely there will be two kinds of robots in disguise in this shared universe.
What do you think? Could this shared universe actually work, or will it only exist to revive long-dormant properties? Let us know in the comments below!
