[This is your spoiler warning that you shouldn’t keep reading if you care at all how Transformers: Rise of the Beasts ends.]
At the end of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, again, set in 1994, Anthony Ramos’s Noah is on yet another job interview. There’s a whole subplot about how Noah had to leave the U.S. military to take care of his little brother, who is ill and has medical bills. Michael Kelly plays the man interviewing Noah for what appears to be another throwaway job, but seems to know a lot more about Noah than would be normally possible and knows that Noah had been in Peru recently hanging out with the Autobots.
Noah plays innocent and claims he has no idea what this is about. Kelly’s character tells Noah he likes that answer then explains a war is coming and his team is looking for people like Noah. And if Noah changes his mind, well, “Here’s my card.” Kelly’s character then opens a secret door on the office wall and enters what appears to be an airport hanger. Noah looks at the card and it reads, “G.I. Joe.”
A couple of things: Obviously the Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover comics have been a thing since the mid-’80s and it’s actually surprising it took until now to even tease such a thing with these movies. In the original G.I. Joe comic run of the ’80s, the G.I. Joe base was a very large underground bunker called The Pit that was located on Staten Island. (This may be where this interview takes place.) And as Transformers director Steven Caple Jr. says, yes, this would be a complete reboot of G.I. Joe and have nothing to do with the prior three movies and goes on to explain at least what he can explain so far about this crossover.
I did not see the G.I. Joe twist coming at the end. Michael Kelly plays it so straight.
Yeah, no, nice to be forward as well and try to keep it close. I feel like Michael Kelly was a nice sort of surprise. As we go into it, we wanted to make sure whoever we use isn’t like a full-blown Nick Fury. When you start to do the compare and contrast to the other franchise. So, for me, it just felt like there was a way to bring in Michael. He’s a phenomenal actor. And so to have him in the mix and be able to build a team out would’ve been really cool. But you could go any direction with him. If he wanted to be a villain, if he wanted to be a good guy, if he wanted to be down for the cause, you just don’t know. So he just felt valuable that way.
Is he a G.I. Joe character we know?
Yes, he is someone we know. He does have a relationship with someone in the past, but not necessarily in the franchises. But not the movies…
I’m assuming this is going to kind of reboot things. Is that the plan, to reboot G.I. Joe?
Yes. 100 percent. That is my plan for sure.
Okay you said “my plan” and that you’ll be involved in the future. So do you want to do more Transformers or do G.I. Joe?
I think that’s one we have to wait on. But I’m always Transformers. I want to say always Transformers. But, I mean, between you and I, I know you’ll read this later, but when you look at it, there is a Transformer, G.I. Joe collaboration in the comic books. And I read it years ago and I thought this idea would always been cool. So I’m not going to say I’m staying true to that storyline, but the fact that it was more so G.I. Joe stepping into their world was interesting to me.
You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.