The idea of a crossover between two of Hasbro’s biggest toy brands-turned-film franchises, Transformers and G.I. Joe, has always been so exciting. These two have a long history of crossover in the comics, long before Transformers: Rise of the Beasts finally established that both series exist in the same cinematic universe, but you likely didn’t realize that there were some behind-the-scenes crossovers as well. This is particularly true concerning the development of the first live-action Transformers movie (yes, the original Michael Bay flick from 2007), which was originally intended to be a G.I. Joe film early on. Here’s what happened.

A Real-Life War Turned ‘G.I. Joe’ Into ‘Transformers’
Image via Paramount Pictures

According to producer Don Murphy, Transformers came about while he was first developing G.I. Joe into a feature film. As the story goes, he had been trying for quite some time to get G.I. Joe off the ground, and had finally gotten a studio on board. “I had been in conversation with Hasbro to do G.I. Joe actually, and Sony was interested in doing it,” Murphy explained in an interview while on the set of Transformers. “Then we invaded Iraq and it became kind of clear that doing a movie called G.I. Joe was probably not the smartest idea at that point.” This would’ve been in 2003 right at the start of what would eventually be called the Second Gulf War. Of course, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra came out years later (before the conflict in Iraq even ended), but Transformers was the brand that Hasbro Films wanted to see brought to the big screen first.

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It took two more years to develop Transformers into a project worthy of big-budget Hollywood financing. With Michael Bay on board to direct, and Steven Spielberg set to executive produce, Transformers became a co-production between Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks, and G.I. Joe was left behind. But Don Murphy was only a small cog in the “Real American Hero” machine, as a G.I. Joe feature film had been in the works before he got involved and remained in development hell for years afterward. Eventually, Stephen Sommers directed Joe’s first big-budget live-action debut, which was significantly panned by critics and audiences alike. It was clear that Murphy was right to drop G.I. Joe for Transformers, especially since Joe continues to struggle with finding their way to the big screen.

‘Transformers’ Retained a Strong U.S. Military Presence

Interestingly though, despite G.I. Joe being removed from the Transformers picture, the Autobots’ first live-action adventure featured a fairly significant U.S. Military presence anyhow. Characters like Josh Duhamel’s Captain William Lennox and Tyrese Gibson’s Sgt. Roger Ebbs were featured prominently in the original film, and ended up becoming recurring staples of the franchise that outlasted even Shia LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky. “Michael [Bay] has a relationship with the military,” Murphy explained when asked about the military’s role in the film. “It’s really that simple and they’ve approved the script and have been excited about the project since we started shooting. The first week we shot on Air Force bases.”

But why make the military a part of a movie all about good robot aliens fighting bad robot aliens? Well, because Michael Bay thought it would help emphasize the tone he was aiming for. “That’s why the military involvement was very important, that we make it very real and credible,” the filmmaker told us at Collider back in 2007. For Bay, adding a military presence was paramount to the film’s success. After all, as his liaison at the Pentagon once told him, “Well, y’know, if aliens do land, I mean the US military should be involved…” According to Bay, at the time, Transformers was the largest cooperation between the United States Armed Forces and a major Hollywood production, and he pushed to make sure that the heroes back home knew there was a mutual respect there. Hopefully, the upcoming Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover will be able to embellish that a bit more.

An ancient struggle between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons brings their war to Earth. Teenager Sam Witwicky, played by Shia LaBeouf, buys his first car, which turns out to be the Autobot Bumblebee. As Sam and his friends join forces with the Autobots, they must prevent the Decepticons from obtaining the powerful AllSpark and destroying humanity​.Release Date June 3, 2007 Runtime 144 Minutes Writers Roberto Orci , Alex Kurtzman , John Rogers Studio(s) DreamWorks Pictures , Di Bonaventura Pictures , DeSanto/Murphy Productions , Paramount Expand

Transformers is available to watch on Paramount+ in the U.S.

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