SNAKE EYES

SNAKE EYES I Henry Golding draws first blood on a whole new franchise…

Henry Golding on his G.I. Joe spin-off.

If you’re going to reboot G.I. Joe, you might as well start with the coolest character. After 2009’s The Rise Of Cobra and 2013’s Retaliation, Snake Eyes jump-starts a new cinematic timeline with an origin story for the Boba Fett of the Joe-verse – the iconic ninja commando who had the best action figures and the worst parts in all the movies.

Famously scarred, masked and silent, Snake Eyes steps out of the shadows for his own spin-off as Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians, Last Christmas) leaves the trademark black helmet off to give us a new speaking assassin with a revenge-filled backstory that ties into the comic-book history of the Arashikage ninja clan.

“I was in two minds for sure,” Golding tells Teasers. “It’s not a role to take lightly. This is G.I. Joe’s greatest-ever character. To be given the chance to revisit this character through a really fresh lens is a huge responsibility. In other G.I. Joe movies, Snake Eyes has always been shrouded in mystery, so it’s nice to be able to set it all out in stone.”

Directed by Robert Schwentke (Red, the Divergent series), the movie shot on location in Japan to draw more inspiration from classic samurai films than from Hollywood actioners – hoping to birth a whole new super-franchise without looking or feeling anything like one. For Golding, authenticity was key to getting into character, as was a gruelling programme of martial-arts training and stunt work to learn how to master the film’s relentless sword choreography, gunplay and hand-to-hand combat for a character who is most famous for his fighting skills.

“This has been six months of my life already,” he laughs, speaking during filming back in 2019 before the film’s bumpy road to release, originally planned for last October. “I’ve been doing months of intensive katana training and martial-arts work for a long time now. It’s been insane.”

Although Snake is the film’s main focus – following his tragic personal journey alongside the betrayal and vengeance of the Arashikage clan – the film also serves as an introduction to the rest of the G.I. Joe crew, with Andrew Koji as Snake’s dojo blood brother Storm Shadow and Úrsula Corberó as Cobra femme fatal Baroness, alongside Scarlett (Samara Weaving), Akiko (Haruka Abe), Blind Master (Peter Mensah), Kenta (Takehiro Hira) and The Raid’s Iko Uwais as dynasty leader Hard Master.

“This film puts people at the forefront,” says Golding, keen to stress that Snake Eyes will look and feel very different from the last two G.I. Joe movies. “It’s doing things that haven’t been done before in big action movies. I think we’re flying under the radar a bit – audiences are going to be really surprised.” PB

ETA | 20 AUGUST / SNAKE EYES OPENS IN CINEMAS THIS SUMMER.