Danny McBride finished his GI Joe script for Paramount, and he promises it is not a comedy despite his reputation.
GI Joe McBride is happening, and if you expected a slapstick comedy about Real American Heroes, think again. The Righteous Gemstones creator has finished his screenplay for Paramount’s G.I. Joe reboot, and he is adamant that “it’s not a comedy.”
Paramount made the unusual move of hiring two writers simultaneously for the Hasbro franchise: McBride and Max Landis each penned separate scripts, with the studio planning to either merge them or pick one. McBride’s version apparently won out, or at least reached the finish line first. He confirmed in July 2026 that the script is complete and that cameras could roll as soon as next year. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who produced the previous three G.I. Joe films, remains attached.
GI Joe McBride Writing Approach
GI Joe McBride represents one of the most unexpected writer-director pairings in recent franchise history. McBride built his reputation on HBO comedies like Eastbound & Down, Vice Principals, and The Righteous Gemstones—shows about egomaniacal failures who refuse to learn anything. He also co-wrote David Gordon Green’s Halloween trilogy, which proved he could handle horror and legacy characters with genuine respect. But G.I. Joe is a military toy franchise about a special missions force fighting a terrorist organization called Cobra. The tonal gap between McBride’s usual work and this material is wide enough to drive a HISS Tank through.
What makes GI Joe McBride potentially brilliant is his understanding of masculine absurdity. His best characters are delusional men who think they’re heroes while everyone around them suffers. Apply that lens to Duke, Snake Eyes, or Storm Shadow, and you might get something that honors the source material while acknowledging how ridiculous the entire concept is. McBride insists it’s not a comedy, but his definition of “not a comedy” might still include more self-awareness than the previous films.
The franchise needs a win. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Retaliation grossed a combined $678 million globally, but 2021’s Snake Eyes crashed with just $40 million. Paramount also teased a G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, so the studio clearly views this as a cornerstone of its action slate. If McBride can deliver a script that balances military spectacle with character work, he might be the unlikely savior of a franchise that has been searching for direction since Channing Tatum’s character was killed off in the first act of the second movie.
GI Joe McBride is in production next year, and Paramount is betting that the guy who made Kenny Powers a household name can also make Snake Eyes cool again.
Enlist for GI Joe McBride when the film hits theaters and see if comedy’s loss is action’s gain.
Also Read: Hunt for Gollum Script Confirmed