Speaking to CBS Boston, Hasbro’s Chief Operating Officer Eric Nyman stated that the future is bright for the Transformers Live Action Movie Franchise and the all-new Transformers Animated Storytelling Universe.
“The Transformers story in the 80s is a phenomenal one,” says Mr. Nyman. “That was really an incredible introduction to the world of robots in disguise. And literally, every car that passes you on the road, every truck that rumbles down the highway, could be an Autobot or a Decepticon.”
“We are very excited to talk about what’s next for Transformers; both the film universe and the animated storytelling universe. On the film side of things, we just announced, in partnership with Paramount, that the [Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts] film will be launching in June of 2023. On the animated side, we are working very closely with Paramount as well to create a whole new version of the animated storytelling that will launch in the upcoming years. So, lots of new Transformers stories.”
You can check out the full segment, after the jump.
Sweep
I hope the animated story telling universe gives us some nice bridge episodes to G1 and other shows. Specifically G1 has a lot of gaps.
f-primusunicron
i know it wont happen but, the bay movies gave us awesome designs, but none were treated as proper characters or even given the proper name or color scheme to match their designs, i just dont want many of the more unique designs to be just forgotten, i just wish they would reuse them at some point
Ramberk Magnus
She doesn’t hate me. Does she even ‘hate’ anyone? I don’t want to bother swimming through anything she has done/said or anything the perceived ‘bad’ fans have done/said.
But I do think it all comes down to what side of the ‘fence’ you are standing on. If you dislike the message it’s “shut up and perform” but if you like the message it’s “good practice of your 1st amendment!”
Hanzkaz
I was kind of of ready to accept the Bayverse approach, aliens, the designs, that feeling of the 'other' in our midst. (i mean, i even made excuses for why they'd take that approach.)
The military stuff did seem kind of cool at first, but then they just piled it on more and more, and I basically got fed up of it. They sort ended up being cynical, military propaganda type movies ('oo-rah, yipee, look how cool we are') amongst all their other numerous issues (though, I'll be honest, I kind of hoped certain of the main military characters would become the protagonists in the later movies. They seemed more suited for it than the screamer we got. To me, if the army was constantly involved to that extent, a military protagonist, or maybe a relative, like an older version of Lennox's daughter, would have made more sense. But then, the guys writing for the movies weren't trying to make sense .)..
And the way the humans just turned on their former allies, well actually, that was probably realistic.
Bumblebee, on the other hand is more like what I really wanted. (It was the kind of movie I'd resigned myself to never happening and had even convinced myself could never happen – I guess I'd got taken in by the Bayverse propaganda more than I'd realised. I knew Travis Knight would do things differently, but I never dreamed he'd manage to pull off what he did with his movie.) Yes, you have the military, but they weren't immediately capable of taking on an invasion of advanced alien robots from outer space. Even one such robot, basically a scout, caused them a lot of trouble when he got serious, and they were that close to getting wiped out. (of course, it was back in the '80, but still)
Also, I found the Knightverse military a bit more fun to watch than it's Bayverse counterpart, despite what happened, especially certain characters.
My approach would be to do things similar to the way Transformers Prime did things. The military were now aware they had visitors, that somewhere on Earth that there were alien robots in disguise duking it out, but they themselves weren't all over the place.
Maybe, there'd even be an Area 51 type conspiracy to keep things under wraps to avoid panicking the public, until they got a handle on things.
I'm not really asking for a 'everybody's happy' movie. (though I do want good movies) I just want more 'robots in disguise' without the entire army constantly crashing the party every time.
(and seriously I want to see Bumblebee teach a dubious Optimus about the Earth tradition of egging, and see how the logical, 'emotionless' Shockwave reacts when the great leader of the Autobots hits him in the eye with a box of eggs as some sort of Earth style distraction tactic)
TheSoundwave
I personally like having some adult themes about xenophobia and the military and whatnot. I mean, if you're going to make movies aimed at a slightly older audience, it makes sense to incorporate those things. Especially in movies set in the real world, which is very complex and divided. I don't think live-action Transformers movies would work if they were set in the happy idealistic world of the cartoon, where the Autobots stroll down main street and everyone cheers them. At that point why even bother to make movies? Might as well just make another cartoon.
That being said, I do think Paramount could have found a much better balance. I'd hold up Spider-Man: No Way Home as an example. That movie did a great job honoring the character and being a fun classic superhero adventure, while also feeling grounded in the real-world, and having some of that real-world cynicism. Like, J Jonah Jamison is more of an Alex Jones/"angry YouTuber" personality who profits off dividing people. That's a good update to the character, since the whole newspaper office thing is very dated.
That being said, we've had so many plots about the human military vs Transformers that I'm kind of ready to move on from it. I still want hints of that sort of thing though. I actually think a NWH-esque plot about the public being divided on the Autobots would be a fun storyline for a movie.
GizmoTron
Yeah, continuity is nice, but being entertaining comes first. It's what actually makes Marvel successful, the best of those are when they focus on that and are not sweating the plot holes, or trying to set up two or three more movies (like TLK did which is mostly why it was such a mess).
Venixion
Yeah, that internal conflict probably translates to the fact that a full stop motion takes 50 million years to make. Give or take a few.
Hanzkaz
That was what Paramount thought, and they almost destroyed the franchise.
But whether they've learned their lesson remains to be seen. If they haven't, and even if the next one does fairly well due to goodwill regained by Bumblebee, people will think twice about the one after (and we can't necessarily count on goodwill. Paramount and it's people sometimes send out mixed messages. We get an 'official' statement referring to a 'new storytelling universe' while, at the same time, senior members still keep making reference to prequels and the Bayverse.
That sort of thing can come across as ambiguous, and can make people wary.
The best thing I can think that Paramount and Hasbro can do, is spread the word as much they can, basically, educate the greater public that this really is something different to all those earlier movies. (and not keep putting Bumblebee in a Bayverse box set. I guess there are some really confused people out there who tried watching them in chronological order )
I mean, I'm a long time Transformers fan, and even I'm not sure exactly what we're in for.
Especially, since we have been misled any number of times in the past.
(personally I suspect they'll try to make a mishmash of the Knightverse and Bayverse. Or perhaps a Knightverse movie with all the Bayverse traits. I wouldn't put either past them)
Which is why I'm going to wait for others to make the jump in the dark, first, and see if they find themselves swimming in clean water or drowning in mud.
TF Hot Rod
TLK says otherwise
Yeah, it didn't just make them lose a lot of money it almost killed them, we were lucky Bumblebee was as far along as it was cause it could have been canceled when TLK bombed.
decepticon seeker
Maybe it doesn’t matter for you.
fallenspartan
How did it work out for TLK? Not so much I’m afraid. It also cost Paramount a lot of money as well.
Neko-bot77
As long as stuff is blowing up and the current big-name star is in it, Transformers will do great at the box office. Whether it has a good story or continuity doesn't matter. What does is that it keeps the brand in the public eye and buying toys.
fallenspartan
Assuming the world is in a much better state and if ROTB doesn’t do bad with critics.
GizmoTron
The "bad" news is that RotB will probably still do well enough that neither of those scenarios is going to happen.
Gee Won 1984
^This
Hanzkaz
I'm going by what I've observed of how Paramount has treated the Transformers franchise pretty much since the beginning, as well as comments by, and reviews with the people working on, and in charge of the movies. (can't quote off hand, but they're probably still floating around the internet somewhere, probably even on this forum).
I did try to be optimistic about the movies at first, attributing issues with the movies to a learning curve (i was one of those who eagerly followed everything I could about them, latest sightings , behind the scenes stuff, etc ) .
Unfortunately, when the makers themselves come out and openly confirm what you'd started to suspect, it tends to be very disappointing, to say the least. (i mean, when they admit they were just throwing in stuff at random because they pretty much felt like it and that they weren't concerned about continuity issues because 'it's just a movie', that's not a good sign) As was their attitude to the franchise and even the fanbase.
See, many of the people in charge of Paramount, even Michael Bay, were adults when Transformers first came out. For them, it was just 'that cartoon about those kids' toys' – not exactly inaccurate, but for fans it's a lot more than that.
When they decided to make the movies, they decided to make what they considered 'grown up' versions, that catered to their particular tastes (check out some of Bay's earlier movies, you'll see what I mean – and to be honest, I liked a few of those).
Unfortunately, they never really understood the spirit of Transformers, as fans recognised it, with all it's characters, their personalities, recognisable traits and their histories, etc. Put it this way, we see Transformers as alien robots while Paramount saw them as alien robots. They focused on the xenophobic aspects, with them being sinister, even creepy, invaders while we often see them as relatable characters, with hopes and issues we can understand . We thought of them as 'Robots in Disguise', while they looked at things being more like a military alien invasion (not entirely wrong, but it was still much more than that).
We tend to see the franchise in a more positive, optimistic light, while with the Bayverse, even 'new born' Transformers seem to be vicious, murderous things.
Ok, I'm getting sidetracked. To put it simply, my comments are based on stuff I've picked up on over the years. Some of it comes across as being in WTF territory that makes you think that the live action franchise never really stood a chance. As for Lorenzo, every time he opens his mouth about what he considers to be a good idea, I find myself thinking 'No, no, somebody keep this guy away. Who's bright idea was it to get him involved?'. And I'm not the only one.
Speaking of crossovers, I personally like the idea. But first, Paramount need to focus on learning how to make good Transformers movies.
fallenspartan
I think Transformers Animated would like to have a word with you. It has managed to maintain a good continuity, at least that’s what TFA fans say.
TheSoundwave
I don't disagree with anything you say here, necessarily. Although I personally feel like inter-movie continuity is one of the lesser problems these movies have. Would it be cool to have a Transformers movies series with tight continuity like the MCU? Sure, I'd absolutely enjoy that. I'd love a Transformers movie that takes advantage of the universe in the same way something like Spider-Man Far From Home does. Like, I've definitely thought about how they could potentially do an Endgame-style Bayverse finale that brings back aspects from other movies and ties up loose ends like how the Creators relate to Quintessa and the Allspark, and then realized that's just wishful thinking.
That being said, Transformers isn't really a continuity-oriented brand. Sure, some series (like IDW) pay more attention to it, but most Transformers cartoons are pulpy-adventure of the week stories. The point is that kids can tune into an episode here and there, and still get a story without having to watch a whole season. That's kind of how I see the movies. With 3 – 4 years between movies, audiences are going to forget a lot of the details of the previous movies. I think Paramount has a duty to make sure each movie is a standalone experience that doesn't lean too heavily on past installments. Could they stand to have tighter continuity? Absolutely. But I also think the priority should be on the characters and individual stories. If the Bay movies had that, I don't think the weak inter-movie continuity would matter that much. Just look at Doctor Who. Weak continuity, but people still love the brand.
I can see your point of view better in this post, and I think you make some good points. But I also think you might be reading a bit too much into certain things, and allowing your negative thoughts about Lorenzo and the Paramount executives to reach false conclusions, or at least conclusions that sound more extreme than they are.
For instance, you mentioned Bumblebee almost being cancelled. But the only place I've ever heard that was from an unverified inside source that was never followed up on. And even if it's true (which I don't have any reason to doubt), stuff like this happens in Hollywood all the time. It's not shocking that they toyed around with the idea of pulling the plug on Bumblebee after TLK flopped. It may have just been a single board meeting where someone tossed out the idea, and was shot down quickly by the other producers. Again, that sort of thing happens all the time in Hollywood. I think the fact that they chose not to cancel it is way more significant and worth focusing on.
The funny thing is, most of the stuff you mentioned here I look at and just go "meh". Lorenzo had concerns about Knight? Makes total sense, Knight was a somewhat new director. That's not really indicative of anything. Yeah, Travis Knight seems to have been given a lot of creative freedom. So was Bay. Giving directors a lot of freedom just seems to be this team's way of making movies. That doesn't mean anything nefarious was going on behind the scenes, it just means they thought Travis was handling things well and decided to let him add a bit more flavor in the reshoots.
Sprocket
I can't say I'm surprised they're sticking with Paramount, as the only other viable option with enough money to back them is Warner Bros, and things feel a bit unstable from them lately