GI Joe Reboot Casts Bradley Cooper as Duke in Danny McBride Film

Danny McBride is working on a G.I. Joe movie reboot and has found the action film’s leading man. Bradley Cooper is set to star in the new live-action G.I. Joe, according to a press release.

Cooper was rumored for the starring role earlier in the year, and now he will officially play Duke, one of the leaders of the G.I. Joes. Channing Tatum previously played Duke in the first two G.I. Joe movies, though the first movie flipped the script and made him a newcomer to the Joes.

Paramount fielded pitches for two different G.I. Joe movies earlier in 2026. One was from Max Landis, who was accused of sexual and emotional abuse by several women at the height of the #MeToo movement. No charges were ever filed, but his career petered out, and Paramount passed on his treatment in March.

What will the G.I. Joe movie be about?

Exact plot details are not known at the time. McBride’s movie will reboot the franchise and will not have any ties to the Transformers crossover film that had been in development but never materialized.

In July, McBride discussed his approach to the film on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. Unlike his best-known comedic roles, the project will not be a comedy. “It’s like kind of suspense and action, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun… You’re following Duke and a group of other Joes… There’s that town in the comic, Springfield, which is a town that’s secretly all Cobra, and so that is where our film takes place,” he said.

McBride and Paramount have only just started casting for the film, meaning the release is likely years away. The project continues a trend in Hollywood of mining toy intellectual property for feature films, such as Barbie, Masters of the Universe, and Matchbox: The Movie, which comes out Oct. 9.

Source: Polygon