Most of the GI Joe cast loses the battle to return for the sequel

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Yes, it’s another sequel no one ever asked for, and it looks like GI JOE 2 is slimming down quite a bit from its first blockbuster effort.

It’s already lost director Stephen Sommers in favor of Justin Bieber’s NEVER SAY NEVER director Jon Chu, and now according to one of its stars, it’s losing most of the original cast as well.

From Scarlett O’Hara (Rachel Nichols) comes this tweet:

“GI JOE 2 News Flash: The only characters to return in the JON CHU directed sequel will be SNAKE EYES, STORM SHADOW and DUKE.”

So that would be Ray Park, Lee Byung-hun and Channing Tatum respectively, meaning Nichols herself has been cut from the roster. So this would also mean no more Cobra Commander or Destro, nor the rest of the Joe good guy squad. I know there are a million different characters in the universe to choose from, but was it necessary to strip the cast this bare?

It’s probably due to budget costs, as the first film didn’t make ass tons of cash, which would also explain the Bieber director Chu coming aboard. But I’m barely convinced this is going to stay out of the straight-to-DVD bin at this point, as out of every franchise being sequelized these days, GI JOE’s fanbase can’t be terribly large compared to most.