The Hasbro Universe refers to several shared fictional universes featuring characters from several franchises owned by toy company Hasbro.[1]
Since 1979, Marvel Comics has published its own comic books based on G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Rom and Transformers, set in Earth-616, known as the Marvel Universe. However, the Transformers and G.I. Joe series were later established non-canon (they are set on Earth-91274). Some of the crossover series featuring both Hasbro and Marvel characters were The X-Men and the Micronauts (guest starring the X-Men) and New Avengers/Transformers (guest starring the New Avengers). Despite the licensing rights reverting to Hasbro, indirect references to Rom and Micronauts have occurred since.
From 1983 to 1987, Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions developed the series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, The Transformers, Jem and Inhumanoids. These series had been hinted to share the same universe, mostly due to the appearance of the character named Hector Ramirez.
On 2004, Dreamwave Productions published Transformers/G.I. Joe, another crossover set in the time of World War I, and including a one-shot titled Transformers/G.I. Joe: Divided Front. This series only lasted six issues, due to Dreamwave's bankruptcy.
Main articles: Hasbro Universe (comics) and Hasbro Reconstruction |
Between 2005 and 2008, IDW Publishing acquired the license to make comics based on Transformers and G.I. Joe, but neither have ever shared the same continuity before. On 2016, IDW announced the Hasbro Reconstruction branding along with the crossover event Revolution, which officially set Transformers and G.I. Joe to co-exist within one same universe, with the addition of Micronauts, Rom, Action Man and M.A.S.K.[2][3] On 2017, Visionaries debuted on the aftermath of the event series First Strike.[4] This comic book continuity will be rebooted for March 2019 after the miniseries Transformers: Unicron.[5]
The Transformers: Aligned continuity (comprising the animated series Transformers: Prime and Transformers: Robots in Disguise) features a reference to M.A.S.K. as a division of the United States military that developed a special vehicle.[6][7]
Further information: Transformers (film series) and G.I. Joe (film series) |
On March 28, 2014, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura announced that he is open to doing a crossover film between the Transformers and G.I. Joe film series (distributed by DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Pictures and MGM).[8] On June 23, di Bonaventura stated that a crossover was not likely to happen,[9] but on July 9, he reassured there would still be a possibility.[10] On October 23, 2015, Chu confirmed his intentions to make a crossover film between Transformers, G.I. Joe and Jem and the Holograms (distributed by Universal Pictures).[11] On October 29, he hinted about Transformers possibly doing crossover with other Hasbro products.[12] On January 18, 2017, D. J. Caruso has stated that when he was in talks to be GI Joe 3's director, the discussion included a Transformers and G.I. Joe meeting. However, Paramount did not think the time was right to do so, and part of that was that they did not want to infringing on Michael Bay's running of the Transformers films.[13]
On December 15, 2015, Hasbro Studios agreed with Paramount to a deal creating a five-property movie universe by financing unit Allspark Pictures and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The following properties are G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., Micronauts, Rom and Visionaries.[14] On April 21, 2016, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Lindsey Beer, Michael Chabon, Cheo Hodari Coker, Joe Robert Cole, John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein, Jeff Pinkner, Nicole Perlman, Nicole Riegel, Geneva Robertson and Brian K. Vaughan have joined the writers' room for the cinematic universe.[15]