Chris Hemsworth in talks to make Saturday morning dreams come true with Transformers-G.I. Joe crossover

The year is 1986. You’re in your parents’ TV room. Footy pajamas on. Action figures at your side. Bowl of Lucky Charms swimming in a bowl of milk. Transformers on TV. G.I. Joe is up next. You don’t know it now, but this is about as good as life is going to get.

To anyone who daydreams at work about such a childhood bacchanal of pleasure and luxury, your day has come. The guy who played Thor, Tyler Rake, and Dementus is in talks to lead a Transformers–G.I. Joe crossover film. Per Deadline, Chris Hemsworth is building on his relationship with the toy company Hasbro. Hemsworth recently starred in Paramount’s Transformers One, an animated Transformers adventure that’s reportedly tested through the roof. What we don’t know is whether or not this will be an animated or live-action movie, and might we humbly suggest the former? These animated characters benefit very little from Shia LaBeouf, Mark Wahlberg, or Anthony Ramos looking at a tennis ball and saying, “Optimus, look out!”

Like Pixar and Disney, Paramount is sticking with its tried and true franchises to carry them through this Hollywood downturn. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. After all, instead of doing another disappointing live-action Ninja Turtles movie, Paramount Animation’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem gave the property a tinge of Spider-Verse creativity. The result was an elevation of the characters that hadn’t been seen since 1990. There’s no reason the same couldn’t be done with Transformers or G.I. Joe, and that’s probably why Transformers One has such strong buzz within the studio. Also, it looks funny and inventive, which is more than we can say about many other Transformers movies.

This, of course, isn’t the first Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover. The two Hasbro properties have been linked for decades, with Hasbro using what worked with G.I. Joe and carrying it over to Transformers. After G.I. Joe rebranded in the ‘80s, Marvel developed comics and cartoons with Hasbro and then did the same with Transformers, bringing many of the same animation styles and voice actors. YouTuber Chris McFeely has a great rundown on their crossovers, including the earliest TV Easter Eggs that linked the two properties and the first true crossover, when Cobra Commander appeared in the 1986 Transformers episode “Only Human.” That year, the two properties teamed up in Marvel Comics for the first time, a partnership that would continue for decades. Frankly, we’re surprised Hasbro has announced an Air-style brand biopic about the ad wizard who came up with the idea of having buff army guys with guns meet talking robots that can turn into racecars.