Fans of the classic G.I. Joe mythos may not be happy. The brand’s most popular and iconic character is absolutely Snake Eyes, a mystery man, whose entire body, including his face, is always concealed, and who cannot speak. It was exactly that mystery that seemed to intrigue kids who latched onto the character when the property was relaunched in the early 1980s as a Hasbro toy line, a top-rated cartoon, and a best-selling Marvel comic book.
But how do you make a character like this work in a movie? Especially, when he isn’t surrounded by teammates to bounce off of? Well, it appears that the answer is, you don’t.
The upcoming Snake Eyes movie is an origin story set before the accident that forced the character to conceal his face and that robbed him of the ability to talk. (The mythos has changed over the years, but in the original, he was injured in a helicopter crash, so that’s what I’m going with.) I mean, you don’t hire a dreamboat like Henry Golding just to cover him up and take away his voice. If you were going to do that, you’d hire a stunt performer like Ray Park, who depicted the character in the first two G.I. Joe movies.
(This isn’t without precedent. Those Marvel heroes NEVER wear their masks.)
As producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura said:
“It was one of the reasons why we picked the backstory [of] ‘How did he become Snake Eyes?’ It allows him to talk, which was very helpful.”
Golding added:
“I wanted to see something different, and I wanted it to look different, to feel different. To be able to launch a franchise like that, it was just too good to be true — and especially with a character like Snake Eyes about whom a lot of people don’t know too much. They know him as this insane operator that completes missions and is an absolute weapon, but who’s the guy behind the mask and what’s his story?”
The film also features Andrew Koji as “Tommy” a member of the Arashikage ninja clan, who fans will know as Storm Shadow. The cast also includes Úrsula Corberó as The Baroness, Samara Weaving as Scarlett, Haruka Abe as Akiko, Iko Uwais as The Hard Master, and Peter Mensah as The Blind Master.
You can check out the majority of the cast below (via EW):
The first two G.I. Joe movies didn’t perform well at the box office, but Paramount is trying again. Obviously, the goal is for Snake Eyes to lead into new team movies, but for now the focus will be on the main character.
As Bonaventura stated:
“Both Cobra and G.I. Joe take a back seat to the internal drama of the Arashikage and the character. They are absolutely an element, but it’s looking at it this way: You meet somebody, watch their struggle, the struggle leads to the world of G.I. Joe and Cobra. It does not start as a G.I. Joe-Cobra movie. It starts as an Arashikage movie, a Snake Eyes character arc. You come to realize the Arashikage as they’ve traditionally been are affiliated with the Joes, therefore that brings in Cobra. There is a gradual reveal that there’s a larger world here.”
Golding added:
“Having this solo movie, we get to set the precedent for where [Snake’s] story leads. It’s phenomenal that Paramount and Hasbro chose to go right to the beginning and really start off with such a story. It gives so much more creative control over where this universe is going. I’m crazy excited to see what we do next.”
How do you feel about a Snake Eyes movie in which the title character shows his (handsome) face throughout and can talk? Is that too much of a departure? Or is it okay, because this is an origin story?
At any rate, Snake Eyes slices its way into theaters on July 23.
