If you thought watching the live-action G.I. Joe movies wasn’t fun, just imagine being in them.
Channing Tatum played Duke in the first two G.I. Joe films: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and the sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Well, technically he’s in both, but in Retaliation, Tatum’s Duke went from the lead character to a glorified cameo, with his action-figure-turned-action-hero summarily killed off in the movie’s first 15 minutes. That made room for Dwayne Johnson to assume the central role in the story as Roadblock.
It was very unusual for a sequel to kill off its main star, much less just a handful of minutes into the film. But Tatum says he actually asked to be written out of the story because he didn’t like the series, and didn’t even want to be in the first movie.
He told Vanity Fair…
The first [G.I. Joe] I passed on seven times, but they had an option on me and I had to do the movie. So the second one, I obviously just didn’t want to be in that one either.
Tatum also said he did not regret the decision to ask to be killed off. And he was hooked up to a lie detector at the time, so you know he’s telling the truth.
G.I. Joe: Retaliation performed reasonably well at the box office, but was about as poorly reviewed as its predecessor. The franchise was then rebooted a few years later as Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, with none of the casts of either film. That movie got terrible reviews too, but it was an out-and-out box office bomb, grossing just $40 million worldwide against a budget of some $100 million. That would seem to suggest there won’t be any more G.I. Joes for a long time. And if there is, you can bet your bank account Channing Tatum won’t be in it.
Tatum’s Magic Mike’s Last Dance is scheduled to premiere on February 10, 2023.
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