Back in 2010, Night Shining went out and pitched a new G.I. Joe animated series titled G.I. Joe: Adventure Team for kids. They hired Evan Gauntt to create the artwork for the pitch in hopes of convincing Hasbro to produce their project, which would put a new spin on these G.I. Joe characters.
The concept art and details for this unmade series have now appeared online. Night Shining, the company that used to license the G.I. Joe franchise, shared details with Seibertron.com, and explained:
“An internal pitch that was made to Hasbro back in the mid 2010’s. With the brand having direction issues, the current team at Night Shining (who use to work for the official G.I.Joe licensee) made this pitch. It brought together 1970’s Adventure Team G.I. Joe with the concept of the 1980’s ARAH. This concept was pitched as a mix of appeal to the Rescue Bots and Transformers Prime audience. Basically, what cartoons use to be in the 80’s!”
This series would have de-emphasized armed conflict and targeted 5 to 11 year old kids. Here are some details on the story and characters that the series would have featured:
The Adventure Team is a group of former military personnel and civilians trained in a multitude of survival tactics for a wide variety of extreme climates. Through experience with numerous environments, they each have their own areas of expertise – Land, Sea, and Air. They use these skills both to explore and discover the secrets left within their domains as well as to work to conserve, protect, and better each environment and together the world.
The Adventure Team is led by The Commander and contains operatives such as the Land Adventurer, Sea Adventurer, Air Adventurer, and The Adventurer. They come from areas across the world, a true international force. Other operatives such as Man of Action, Man of the Sea, Arctic Adventerur, Urban Adventurer, Man of Asia, Foreign Adventerur, Dr. Mike Power, etc. can be added to bolster rank and add action figures to product offerings.
The series would have centers on a young Cobra Commander, Destro, and Baroness with future G.I. Joe’s set to make weekly appearances, it was imagined as a prelude of sorts to the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero cartoon from the 1980s. We would have also seen a young Snake Eyes in action.
The show would not have featured the heroes battling terrorists, instead they were going to embark on adventures to protect natural wonders. M.A.R.S. (the company owned by Destro) would have remained a threat as they sought to “profit and gain through any means they deem fit. They have their hands in oil. deforestation, precious Jewels, strip mining, and occasionally poaching.” The heroes of the story find all of this appalling, so they make it their mission to stop them.
It’s explained that the head of operations at M.A.R.S. is a former member of their team, The Lost Adventurer also known as Man of Evil.
It’s definitely different from the G.I. Joe cartoon series we grew up with! With parents in my, the pitch says: “The parents of today’s world who grew up with G.I. Joe but are also concerned about current events may find this new concept refreshing because while the Joes are no longer fighting terrorists week in and week out, they are still G.I. Joes at heart.”
I mean, I’m the dad who attempted to show the original series to my own kids (all girls) but that obviously didn’t take. Regardless, parents do have the option of showing the original series to their kids if they want, but I wouldn’t object to my own kids watching this G.I. Joe: Adventure Team series. Not that they’d be interested now as thier all grown up.
I have my own ideas for a G.I. Joe reboot, but it’s very different than what this is! Check out the pitch deck below and let us know what you think!
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