Here’s how Duke managed to survive G.I. Joe: The Movie despite the character originally being killed off. Following the major success of the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero series of toys in the early 1980s, work soon began on turning the line into an animated series. The show arrived in 1983 and followed the titular military team in their ongoing battle against the villainous forces of Cobra Commander and his terrorist organization, who operate from their Terror Drome fortress. Multiple characters on the show became popular too, including Snake Eyes, Scarlett, Roadblock and Duke.
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero only ran for two seasons, but is considered a classic cartoon show from the 1980s – even though it was basically an elaborate toy commercial. One of the most iconic parts of the show was the PSA segments that came at the end of each episode, where a character would impart safety tips or knowledge to children, always ending on the line “And knowing is half the battle!“
Thanks to the continuing success of the GI Joe cartoon, G.I. Joe: The Movie was soon put into production. This animated adventure was developed around the same time as two other Hasbro movies The Transformers: The Movie and My Little Pony: The Movie, and the story saw the Joes fighting against the Cobra-La and new villain Serpentor. The movie originally featured a particularly bold move where Sgt. Duke – one of the most popular heroes on the show – would be killed by Serpentor while trying to save his brother Falcon (voiced by Don Johnson).
The Hasbro G.I. Joe movie originally featured this scene, but before its release, this was revised. The plan to kill Duke influenced the team behind the animated Transformers movie to pull a shocking twist of their own, with Optimus Prime dying around the midway point. Delays on G.I. Joe: The Movie saw Transformers come out first, but not only was the movie a finance dud, but the death of Optimus also traumatized younger viewers.
Hasbro took note of this vocal backlash, and not only was Optimus swiftly revived on the Transformers cartoon series, G.I. Joe: The Movie was sent straight to video and reworked. Duke doesn’t die of his wounds in the released version, but despite the scene playing out as it originally animated – where he dies and his teammates mourn – offscreen dialogue tells viewers he’s only fallen into a coma. Towards the end of the movie, it’s also confirmed Duke has popped out of his coma and is recovering.
While Duke survived G.I. Joe: The Movie, he wasn’t so lucky in the live-action series. Channing Tatum played the character in 2009’s Rise Of Cobra, but while this blockbuster was a success, it received mostly poor reviews. The follow-up G.I. Joe: Retribution was thus positioned as a soft reboot, which included bringing back Tatum’s Duke only to kill him off in the first act, allowing Dwayne Johnson’s Roadblock and a new team to take over. Tatum had no issue with this and later admitted to “hating” the first movie and only making it out of contractual obligation. Other animated adventures in the franchise arrived in the early-2000s like G.I. Joe: Valor Vs Venom and the live-action series will return with 2021’s Snake Eyes, starring Henry Golding as the title character.
