Quite a while back, rumors started pouring in that Hasbro is working hard to compete with Marvel and DC to bring their own Cinematic Universe to the bigscreen.
Initially dubbed as Hasbro Cinematic Universe, the toy company then presented an idea for a separate Transformers Cinematic Universe during the Jefferies 2016 Consumer Conference.
Thanks to an article posted today on Hollywood Reporter, it seems as though plans are well underway to implement this Cinematic Universe with brands such as G. I. Joe, Micronauts, M.A.S.K and many other Hasbro brands. This initiative may include Transformers as well.
“How would you describe IDW’s relationship with Hasbro on this project? They’re obviously doing a similar project with their shared movie universe, so has there been a lot of back and forth on the interconnectedness of the various properties, and do’s and don’t’s?
John Barber: Well, IDW Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall and I flew out to Hasbro headquarters in Rhode Island to pitch this to people at Hasbro, and they were totally onboard. They let us know their plans are in terms of the movie universe, and where they’re going with the characters that are in Revolution — and several that aren’t. So we had a lay of the land, but we’re out far ahead of some of those movie plans. I mean, clearly the M.A.S.K. comic is hitting years before a M.A.S.K. movie.
They worked a lot with Cullen and I when Cullen was putting the Micronauts outline together—there were characters they’d developed for the future they wanted to see. Same thing with M.A.S.K. and Rom. They’re the stewards of these characters, so understandably, every once in a while they’ll have a “We want to go somewhere else with Flash from G.I. Joe” or whatnot, but it was really more of everybody at Hasbro being really supportive and suggesting cool new things and adding toys to the toybox.”
What do you think of this new development? Will this be a great opportunity to introduce a bigger threat such as Unicron? Sound-off on the thread associated with this news post.
Mirage232
I hate to admit it, but I have to agree. That was probably the main reason why I originally was excited to learn that Simon Furman was continuing the original Marvel G1 comic. (Even if it did jump ahead 20 years and well, didn't exactly turn out spectacular.)
FrenZ
Best not to over think the whole thing. In the first live action Transformers movie, the main army guy should have been called Duke.
Add Cobra Commander to the villain list and call it good.
DetectiveFork
Maybe this will be how Hasbro finally snaps out of their "piles of"money"-induced high and lets someone besides Bay make a Transformers movie.
DoctorWhat
If Transformers are going to be part of this combined universe, I really hope Hasbro restarts the series to incorporate characters with designs and personalities closer to the classic series. IDW would be a great basis. The last thing I want is to see the Bayverse meld into this. And G.I. Joe honestly needs a reboot, too. They already killed off some of the popular characters, so that is no fun, and the movies just weren't that good.
SouthtownKid
What does this even mean? Everything from Transformers or GI Joe should be set in the 1980s? Respectfully disagree.
Autovolt 127
2. is my ideal scenario.
Now that would be something.
Max Tower
GI JOE RAH did get a we bit silly once they started having to shoehorn in Transformers and Star Brigade but it was still fun – I enjoyed it before it got really SCI FI and in a different way once it was all sci fi.
Bare bones Gi Joe would be a curious beast to do an keep interesting and make it seem both grounded and yet also not like a generic military action movie – There have been some Movies that have nothing to do with Gi Joe that remind me of it an awful lot though especially Stealth and Megaforce 79.
northjason
I always thought the Misfits would fit effortlessly with GI Joe 's Dreadnoks. Like, Cold Slither could open for them.
motorthing
I'm in it for some toys. If I actually get a "Marvel" Rom figure (some space knights would be nice too) and some Micronaut toys that also fit that aesthetic then I'm not going to give a bucket of flying Bay-anus what they fuck up/around with in terms of stories and films I undoubtably won't want to watch. TF "Films" end at the first one for me now anyway.
Somehow I suspect I may not even get that…….
megabot6969
I think we all know that the movies will definitely suck, but the good news is that a bunch of new toys such come from this mess.
3.8TransAM
I bought Revolutions one, it better be good.
I don't think any of this is a good idea.
Dinobot Snarl
Transformers and Gi-joe work better as period pieces and if they use the twisted knurled bay monsters as their base for the new continuum then I\'m out already. After 10+ years I\'d like to see something that reminds me of Transformers, not some dudes reimagined version.
SouthtownKid
Yeah, lets pretend there haven't been any awkward, groan-worthy failed attempts at humor in IDW, too.
Lucas35
I knew some things he said because of this interview:
Declassifying IDW & Hasbro's World-Merging "Revolution"
As the crossover was his idea without any connection with Hasbro.
Lucas35
I knew some things he said because of this interview:
Declassifying IDW & Hasbro's World-Merging "Revolution"
As the crossover was his idea without any connection with Hasbro.
Darker
At least ROM is making a comeback. That's all I'm excited for.
jackgaughan
I'm so please that did it like that, it's not my Rosanna/Jem team up, but it's a start.
Jalaguy
The main IDW G1 continuity has nothing to do with the movies. The vague link that this article alludes to is that Hasbro also has plans for a multi-franchise shared universe for films, but that's going to be an entirely separate thing to IDW's shared universe.
IDW used to do actual movie tie-in comics, but Bay started obstructing print media starting with AOE – note that there was no AOE novelisation either.
IDW writers have actually said that Jem does technically exist in this universe – Action Man has a poster of the Misfits, even! – but that you won't ever see any kind of full-blown crossover since it isn't a sci-fi action franchise like the others and it'd be inappropriate to foist aliens and stuff on it.
jackgaughan
Just add Jem, have Jem and the Holograms team up with Blaster, Rewind and Rosanna to stop the Cobra funded Misfits and their evil tour bus new Soundwave, chop chop Hasbro.
Aye, wouldn't want to ruin the amazing track records of the movies, IDW wishes it could make a story as compelling as "We covered by the Romeo and Juilett law!" or even "Stop lubricating the man!"
SouthtownKid
As far as IDW comics go, I don't care what they do with their shared universe as long as they let Hama continue his 'Real American Hero' without interference.
I don't want to see IDW lose what they've accomplished with their TF comics, but honestly, if they ruin them, I'll get over it pretty quickly. And IDW's main universe take on GI Joe, they've already ruined beyond salvaging. There's no way they can make it worse, and there's no way they can turn it around at this point. The other stuff… there's never going to be any Micronauts story/universe that will be able to match up to what Mantlo did. Sheer impossibility. And from what we've seen so far, IDW is not even in the same ballpark. ROM, whatever. IDW could do something new and interesting with it, but it doesn't look to me like that's going to happen.
I have a lot more hope for those properties as movies. Micronauts in particular. I'm not wild about the shared universe concept, beyond TF and Joe, but I can't say I'm not interested to see what they do. Best of luck to them.
tl;dr: Just let Hama's RAH continue unmolested. Other than that, I don't care what they do.