IGN has posted a short yet insightful interview with Transformers Prime’s executive producer and showrunner, Jeff Kline. He talks a bit about the process of bringing Prime Season 3 – Beast Hunters – to the screen including referencing once again the “rejiggering” of plots that occurred when permission to use the “beasts” was granted. He also mentions that new villain Predaking is a great addition to the show in design, character and where they take him in his character arc. All in all, promising stuff!
The most interesting part of the interview comes when IGN asks Mr Kline about the next iteration of Transformers. Jeff Kline confirms Hasbro and the Hub would like the same creative team that has worked on Transformers Prime to be involved in the new series. He also states that so far the new series is in the earliest stages of development, which he states is mostly character and conceptual work. There’s the standard caveat of course “if all goes to plan”, because as we know well all plans are subject to change, but this is our first news on the next Transformers cartoon series, such as it is.
soundwaverulls
why are people talking like Jeff Kline hasn't said Prime's team's working on the next series before? In a previous interview, he said that.
Jeff Kline Interview – Beast Hunters Series Hints, New Characters & The Next TV Series – Transformers News – TFW2005
Edit: looking at the comments, it seems people were distracted by a trailer in the same post.
Digilaut
I wouldn't mind it if most people working on Prime would continue to work on something new – I just want the product to be good/fun, and Prime is definitely not it for me.
As somebody who has worked on multiple projects, good and bad, often with the same people, I've quickly found out (but it doesn't take a genius to figure that out) the problem is oftentimes not with the skills of the team itself, but with decisions made by people in leading roles, or guidelines given from 'above'.
In short: I can dislike this show's aesthetic, but that doesn't mean the artists working on it are bad at their job. It's just somebody made a decision on what route to take, and I simply don't agree with that.
As has been pointed out, some of the people working on Prime worked on Animated as well. It's not like they replaced an entire team with others. In a creative environment, working with freelancers often, or with people you have a lasting connection with, is common.
So yeah, I don't mind. I just hope the next show is better/more to my liking.
Rob
Great points!!!
I am not a fan of the movies or the RID and AEC but, I don't ignore their huge positive impact on the franchise as a whole.
For me Prime is the best Transformer show to date but, I understand how others may feel differently and that's fine, there is plenty of room for everyone in this franchise.
could not agree more with your thought provoking and fact based reply, the forum needs more people like yourself, great job .
RavageX-9
Look, regardless of who screwed things up
…
(whether it was Orci and Kurtzman, or Jeff Kline, or their bosses, or the head writer they hired, Duane Capizzi, who is ALSO one of the 4 "show runners" along with the 3 previously mentioned; or some combination thereof, which we'll most likely never discover or be able to deduce)
(hint: it's not the fault of guest writers or the VAs)
…
none of it changes my opinion on the end product quality of the writing. It's a common complaint, and I want it fixed for the next series rather than continued. I don't want it incrementally improved.
…You know what? I withdraw my complaint.
I forgot what this brand was, and I was expecting too much. I ignored the precedence that shows that quality writing in the brand is an anomaly. I'll just continue to do what I did for the movies, and just ignore them when I hear they're terrible.
What are you doing, son?
Half of your post you spend impotently trying to convince me how awards validate anything.
The other half you spend mistaking me for the person I replied to, AND using the logical fallacy of older = inferior.
Transformed
Transformers Prime has won many more awards during its first year on TV than Beast Wars and Transformers Animated did during their combined runs on TV
Of the six awards Transformers Prime netted during its first year on TV was the award for Outstanding Writing in Animation, which was awarded to Nicole Dubuc, Duane Capizzi, Marsha F. Griffin, Steven Melching and Joseph Kuhr.
These guys and gal know what they’re doing and how to write. They’ve been writing for many years and have written for shows some here say have better writers than Transformers Prime
You may not like Transformers Prime, and that’s fine, but you cannot deny that more than enough do love it, and these people awarded the program 11 awards during its first two years on television.
While some may feel these awards mean nothing, they do matter—everyone loves a winner. And Hasbro does too, if the Transformers Prime crew carries over to the next series, I’m sure their accomplishments as a team will have gotten them their.
While you and others want Transformers to go back in time, back to storytelling familiar with Beast Wars and the like, Hasbro wants to reinvent the show, taking it where it’s never been before; hence, to constant reboots.
I would love to see the franchise follow in Star Trek’s footsteps, creating stories that take place in one universe, further developing the story as a whole, but that has never been Hasbro’s style. Hasbro wants a different show, introducing new ideas. Look at Transformers Rescue Bots, which was developed by the same people doing Transformers Prime.
I for one hope Hasbro has had enough rebooting the franchise and is willing to lock itself down with the current fiction and move the story forward.
ErbFan28
I really hope the next series is a sequel. I'm tired of seeing reboots. Let's have continuous Transformers series for once.
I would love to see Marty Isenberg to the writing staff. He did great on BM and Animated. His Prime episodes are some of my favorites as well.
kaijuguy19
You do relieze that Marty Isenberg the man who was head writer of Animated wrote some episodes for Prime as well right? Wouldn't that mean by that logic make him automatically medicore then?
Also I'm getting the feeling that you're biased against anything that isn't BW or TFA related. Nothing wrong in thinking BW and TFA are better written because a lot of people say it is for good reason. However we can't say that the other series flawed as they are don't have good points to them. For example RID brought some pretty likelbe characters and Scourge is credited to be the one responsible for brining back the Decepticons. Armada's second half actually turned out very well written,the movies helped made the franchise relevent again just to name a few examples.
EnergonWaffles
A fact which is conveniently forgotten by those who wish to see no issues with their favorite series and nothing but issues with the ones they dislike.
Frankly I've liked bits of everything ( had some issues with RB but I like the story well enough). Come at me Hasbro. Gimme the next thing!
abominus prime
I agree and also part of buying the toys also was because i saw them on the show i don't wanna see a 100 different toys of the same five generic toys as on the show, what made the 80's show so awsome was its wide character base. and the fact you didn't have to see optimus in every single episode spouting the same ol' hero crap was always a relief when getting to see the other characters develope. And for the love of god can we please give bumblebee a voice and bring back Dan Gilvezan to voice him. this stupid r2d2 noise is killing his character give him his personality back PLEEAASE!!!!
Thundershot
The funny thing is that I remember at one point people complained about the huge cast in AEC with so little characterization. Aaron Archer said that to get less characters we'd have to be willing to buy the same character at multiple price points.
In a way, I miss the AEC days when it came to the sheer number of characters… Surely there must be some kind of happy medium? Animated had the right idea of having different squads with a Prime as a leader…
Starscream NZ
I'd prefer a return to standard cel-based animation if means we can get a cast larger that the generic 5 bots. Hell, why not just start with 7-8 characters each side? It makes more sense to have these characters there to start with, with little to no need to introduce 'new' characters later, because there's already a good handful to play around with.
abominus prime
Oh and a larger cast would be nice,I loved the classic Optimus roll call before rolling out its what made the show for me and not so much the cliched one liners we see now. I mean what would you rather hear "freedom is the right of all centian beings"or "Autobots cliffjumper,hound,jazz,wheeljack,ironhide,bumblebee Transform and roolll oooutt" send shviers down my spine lol
abominus prime
I miss the ol' body style from the 80's shows, I wish they would return to that but with updated vehicle modes. the character developement had a much broader ranger. The personalities were always so different.Ngsmoov did a great job with that,As fan project. but i bet this team could do awsome as i loved TF Prime. hopefully we might see the rise of galvatron and Rodimus prime with Optimus(peter cullen and frank welker returning to there respective rolls of course)as i see this as the next logical step in the transformers story.
RavageX-9
No, I wanted GOOD story-telling, like in Animated and Beast Wars.
and… that's painful to say, because those weren't without their flaws either. It's sad when moderately good quality is so rare that it's exceptional and unrealistic.
What's their track record now? *looks stuff up*
Oh my god! It's been 4 years since Animated ended?? *sob*
Sep 1984 – Feb 1987 – ~95 eps. G1
nothing (but 3 Rebirth eps and G2 reaired eps.)
Apr 1996 – May 1999 – 52 eps. Beast Wars
Sep 1999 – May 2000 – 26 eps. Beast Machines
Sep 2001 – Mar 2002 – 39 eps. RID
Aug 2002 – Oct 2003 – 52 eps. Armada
Jan 2004 – June 2005 – 51 eps. Energon
Sep 2005 – Oct 2006 – 52 eps. Cybertron
Jan 2008 – May 2009 – 39 eps. Animated
Nov 2010 – ??? 2013 – 65 eps. TFPrime
471 eps. total
2 good shows in almost 30 years. Bleeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhh!
Although per episode, that's almost 1/5th of them! :I (19.3%)
I JUST want good writing! I could take unlikeable characters, a small cast, and bad visuals (hand drawn or 3D. Hell, even Flash-like.) if the writing were good.
Looking on the wiki, they all sound pretty mediocre. Joseph Kuhr worked on some really great shows, but with the odds of his other coworkers it doesn't matter.
"…many Warner Bros. and DC Comics animated series, including The Zeta Project, Justice League, The Batman, and Batman: The Brave and The Bold. "
Steven Melching? I dunno.
"In addition to Beast Machines, he has also written for X-Men, Extreme Ghostbusters, Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, The Mummy: The Animated Series, The Batman, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Currently, he is one of the many writers for Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
He also co-wrote the seminal Star Wars fan-film TROOPS (In which Jess Harnell stars as a Stormtrooper). "
Hahahah! "Shoulda seen this comin'."
It's already over half done. You think it'll mature? Usually that takes 3 FULL seasons and this show doesn't have that time. (Like a Star Trek TNG or DS9. In my top 3 sci-fi shows of all time, but I won't even watch early seasons because they're so horrible.)
The mistakes aren't due to Hasbro, they're due to mediocre head writers that were mediocre before.
Yeah. Fire them and get good ones who can only do so much BETTER.
Paradigm-Shift Prime
If they stay with the same group, a more coherent, relevant, carry-through plot line would be nice. As it went through Prime became more and more lacking in developing a purposeful story.
EnergonWaffles
Kline is very good at what I call "CMA Lingo."
shroobmaster
Other interviews made it sound like that. Hasbro probably asked them to word it differently so people wouldn't start complaining that a toy company wants to sell toys in their show.
Ratchets Hatch
Huh. I was under the impression that Hasbro DEMANDED that they include Predaking.
Negativedark
Moreprimeland, your avatar makes me dizzy.
I think they can go a few more seasons with the current style and creators. But not too long. If you have a target market of Children, you have to change it up because eventually most of your target audience will get to the point that they won't be watching it, as they grow up. Whats more you need to change the look and styling of the toys because you don't want it getting stale. Sure we can see the differences between the long fronted Primes of the movies and the long fronteds Primes of Prime. But to parents they might figure its enough like the toy they bought the kid last year.
moreprimeland
My take on the interview, 'blah blah blah', nothing new or definitive, same as always.
Yep Auto, having Marty full time would be fantastic.