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.
Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions (1983–1987)
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.
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]
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]
