Hasbro Cinematic Universe: Toy Company Studio Pairs With Paramount, Connects G.I. Joe Franchise


Hasbro’s G.I. Joe is joining the Micronauts, Visionaries, M.A.S.K., and ROM toy brands. Paramount already has its Transformers franchise moving forward, and Hasbro has announced that its Allspark Pictures will integrate G.I. Joe with the aforementioned brands, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The system of connectivity between the five brands in a shared universe, as explained by the Hollywood Reporter.

“Paramount and Allspark Pictures, Hasbro’s film label, build an interconnected, cross-property onscreen universe featuring characters from five of Hasbro’s other brands: G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Visionaries, M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) and ROM.”

Hasbro is now joining the bandwagon of shared universes with Paramount. It can be said that the ball started rolling with Marvel Studios’ first Iron Man movie in 2008, which was directed by Jon Favreau. Now, we’re into Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And then there’s 20th Century Fox’s mutant X-Men franchise as well. Of course, there’s Sony Picture’s Spider-Man, but the character is actually being used in Marvel Studio’s shared universe.

Notably, it appears that Transformers 5, starring Peter Cullen, will be the first part of the Hasbro and Paramount shared universe, according to Screen Rant. There isn’t much to be said about this upcoming movie, so there is very little information regarding how this shared universe will branch out.

Hasbro and Paramount’s joining of the brands can allow for not-so-well-known toy franchises to gain popularity. This can be comparable to Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy movie. It was up to Slither director James Gunn to bring several less popular characters, namely Star-Lord, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Groot, and Rocket Raccoon, into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This was thought to be a very risky move, but considering Marvel had a good reputation for quality movies beginning with the first Iron Man movie, they figured it was worth the risk. Hasbro faces several challenges going this route, but the results were highly successful for Marvel Studios and director James Gunn. In fact, they played off the fact that the Star-Lord character wasn’t even well known in his own universe.

Those at Hasbro who are responsible for making this happen are CEO Brian Goldner, chief content officer and executive vice-president Stephen Davis, and Josh Feldman, who is Hasbro’s head of film development. From these three will come the development of these brands into the cinematic universe, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Upon comparison to Paramount’s franchise of a shared universe, led by Akiva Goldsman, who recently headed off a “writer’s room” to move forward with a “creative road map.” The Transformers franchise already garnered its success via Paramount Studios, as well as the G.I. Joe movies. Brad Grey, CEO and Chairman of Paramount, talked about their excitement when joining other Hasbro toy brands and introducing them into their own shared universe.

“Paramount and Hasbro have had a longstanding relationship, and we’re proud of the success we’ve enjoyed on the Transformers and G.I. Joe franchises. We’re excited to grow our agreement and make even more movies based upon these popular and powerful Hasbro characters and their worlds.”

Hasbro CEO Goldner discussed the value he placed on Allspark Studios and Hasbro in regards to their storytelling process of creating “dynamic” worlds stemming from these brands and their ability to provide a process of inter-connectivity between them all.

“Hasbro and Allspark Pictures put storytelling at the center of everything that we do. These brands are filled with memorable stories and vivid characters, and this universe creates a framework for how they will become interconnected. Extending our partnership with Paramount allows us to continue our long-term strategy and overall vision to build dynamic worlds for all of our brands, and we are thrilled to collaborate with them as we develop these properties.”

It will be interesting to know how Paramount and Hasbro plan on moving forward into their own shared universe much like Marvel Studios, 20th Century Fox, and Sony Pictures.

[Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images Entertainment]

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