The character first appeared in a 1984 animated series and was turned into an action figure soon after. Lady Jaye was also introduced into the G.I. Joe comics in 1985 and their first on-screen appearance was in the 2013 feature film G.I. Joe: Retaliation, portrayed by Adrianne Palicki. There is no confirmation on whether Palicki will be reprising her role as Jaye or if the studio will be bringing in a new face.
The idea for G.I. Joe first came up in the early 1960s, when there weren’t many popular male toy figures. The 12-inch military figure was invented by Stan Weston and sold to Hasbro for $100,000. The toy conglomerate introduced Government Issue Joe, or G.I. Joe, in 1964 and coined the term ‘action figure’ to market the figurines to the young male population. They assumed that young boys would not want to play with ‘dolls,’ even though their Joe figurines had the same traits as Mattel’s popular Barbie doll.
Their figures went on to become a huge success, with Hasbro marketing multiple characters for the four branches of the military at the time. Over the years, Hasbro has changed tactics several times to appeal to their audience and has also managed to get a deal with Marvel to create comic books based on the franchise’s characters, which are published to this day.
The franchise also made a transition to the big screen with G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra releasing in 2009, starring Channing Tatum, followed by the sequel Retaliation in 2013 led by Dwayne Johnson. Even though the films were poorly received by critics, the third film in the franchise, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, with actor Henry Golding in the lead, is due to release this fall. With Jaye’s TV series connecting to the G.I. Joe universe, it remains to be seen if the series will also go the crossover route.
The G.I. Joe series is being developed by Paramount Television Studios, eOne, and Skydance Television.
Source: Deadline
