The final batch of WonderCon@Home panels includes another turn at the remote mic for IDW Publishing:
You asked the questions, and IDW’s Chris Ryall (IDW’s president, publisher, and chief creative officer) and John Barber (IDW’s editor-in-chief) are here to give you the answers! The president/publisher/CCO and editor-in-chief of IDW Publishing (respectively) sit down for a Q&A, fielding questions submitted by fans on social media! From Locke & Key to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, from Sonic the Hedgehog to Usagi Yojimbo, there’s nowhere better to get a behind-the-scenes look at these IDW projects and many, many more!
And yes, that many more includes discussion of the UK reprint program, the My Little Pony / Transformers and Transformers vs. The Terminator crossovers and a new Beast Wars series.
Panelists:
- Chris Ryall (IDW’s president, publisher, and chief creative officer) • Twitter: @chris_ryall
- John Barber (IDW’s editor-in-chief) • Twitter: @thejohnbarber
Play the entire panel here, then sound off on the 2005 boards!
WishfulThinking
Well…we'll just have to disagree then. I've found a surprising amount of substance that is only held back by its episode lengths. If it were 20s instead of 10s, I think seasons 2 and 3 would be approaching Beast Wars or Animated levels of characterization.
T-Hybrid
BWII was Maximal beast modes fighting a mix of Predacon beasts and Decepticon vehicles. And you had Beast Machines which was good guy beasts against bad guy vehicles.
I'm also fully on board with pre-Earth alt modes. The whole premise of BW was they weren't beasts until they got there…and even then their alts were organic. So it'd make perfect sense for the first shot across the bow to going that route is to introduce guys who have vehicle modes and then they get their beast alts in the next chapter. And fighting a mix of beast/vehicle bad guys would be a way to mix in a few molds/characters from the Japanese (and possibly even Beast Machines) era without having to expressly adapt that story.
Wolffang as Carnivac, Polar Claw as Chainclaw…there are a few options to mix in guys from other eras if they want to get some mileage out of molds.
Darth Gonzo
I never said the Beast Wars characters wouldn't be used, I was just suggesting they could use non-Beast Era, Beast Transformers as well.
Blackarachnia1996
Yes, I watched every episode from season 1-3… it’s awful. Definitely meant for little kids with no substance outside the Quintesson arc (which draaagged)
I think the most beloved thing about Beast Wars are the characters… I think any successful reboot, whether it’s comic, movie, or toy line, needs to keep that cast of 20 characters. I don’t care if it takes place on Cybertron, an alien planet, or present day Earth, if it doesn’t have Dinobot, BW Megatron, Waspinator, Optimus Primal, Rattrap, Blackarachnia, Rampage, Rhinox, etc., it’s not going to work… it’s why The Gathering doesn’t really stay in anybody’s memory
Windsweeper II
Oh. I misread. I thought you meant them having non beast alt modes.
BWU having no beast wars characters was fun because it was a large world and adding non BW characters made that world larger. But I'd rather thwy focus on BW characters for this series, since writers seem to want to focus on a select amount of characters these days.
Verno
"Yeah, it'll be exciting to come back into that world. You know, over the years, we've had a lot of the characters show up. I, personally, have given short-shrift to a lot of those Beast Wars characters in stories I've written. Sorry. This won't be that. This will be genuine Beast Wars that I think a lot of people grew up with, and a lot of people love." – John Barber.
The transcript is on the first page of the thread.
Darth Gonzo
They didn't tell us anything about the comic, all they did tell us was there's a Beast Wars comic coming next year and that's it.
Darth Gonzo
I think you might have quoted the wrong post of mine.
Windsweeper II
If the story calls for it and they obtain beast modes later on, why not?
SPLIT LIP
Thats not what they said in the interview. They said it’d be the Beast Wars fans knew. I.e., Earth animals.
Darth Gonzo
How about this, they do pre-Earth BW but they turn into alien animals from different planets?
kevchy
I hope the new BW comic keeps the organic beast aesthetic, and not go for the pre-BW cybetronian vehicle route.
Vector Oracle
I’ll take the wait-and-see approach. Wasn’t a big fan of The Gathering, so I’ll remain skeptical until I see reviews.
Fafnir72
They, Takara did it in Japan. Their take on BW.
Darth Gonzo
I didn't realize I forgot "Era" and a "Beast" after that in my last comment.
Rojixus
Then what would even be the point of calling it Beast Wars?
Darth Gonzo
What if this like Beast Wars Uprising were they use non-Beast Era, Beast Transformers in Beast Wars, which I would be okay with, would you guys be okay with that?
RacerCheetor
New IDW's Beast Wars!
View attachment 28652834
Thundershot
2022: Disney buys Hasbro