Sequels Transformers Reboot Speculation Thread

[Grootster]

I think it's time for a reboot, although I think the Bumblebee movie will show whether or not it's possible to do good movies in this universe.

If we do get a reboot I'd like to see:

1. More realistic, simpler robot designs that homage the 80s show while still having their own fresh flair.

2. More intelligent humor, less crude humor. Less/no bad language and extreme violence. (Keep language and violence on about the level of A New Hope or The Force Awakens.)

3. Nothing on Earth pre-1900. (no knights, pyramids, etc.) Everything should take place in a world with some sort of technology and vehicles for the TFs to turn into.

4. Better human actors and characterizations for the humans. No existing human characters from other incarnations of the brand (No Sam/Spike Witwicky, Carly, Miko, etc.). Less/no military involvement and humans fighting against the Transformers. More 'everyday' human characters.

5. Streamlined origins (Quintessons built Transformers, they rebelled, had a war on Cybertron and came to Earth). Maybe Unicron, but no Primus or 13 Primes.

6. Less/no plots that revolve around ancient McGuffins.

7. Keep the idea of TFs scanning vehicle modes. Also keep integrated weapons and the idea that they can deploy weapons in vehicle form.

8. More variation in alternate forms (less modern supercars, more older/commonplace vehicles, and also more non-vehicle tech.)

9. No Jablonsky, different style of soundtrack (maybe something more like this). Work in an instrumental version of the classic theme song. And certainly no Linkin Park.

10. Less/no city-destroying battles. Smaller scale stories and more secrecy around the Transformers. Maybe they're more of a myth among the population than a known presence.

Edit: Honorable mention: this one's going to be controversial, but I would honestly enjoy all the TFs to have non-humanoid face designs that don't emote much (if at all). Let them express personality through tone of voice and body-language. Think K-2SO from Rogue One. This eliminates the creepily-complex-look of the current faces, and the liquid metal look (which probably wouldn't translate well to live-action.) Optimus would be easy, since he already has a faceplate. I've never really understood why robots need mouths anyway.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

That version of Prime is a million times better than the movies.

I agree.

Imagine that in live action.

 

[markjoedelonge]

I actually really like the movie designs.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Yeah but they're going to want to distance themselves from Bay's series.

People are pretty much done with it.

 

[elgaz]

I actually really like the movie designs.

I've grown used to them I guess, but they're still totally over-designed.

I had this Optimus Prime G1 toy when I was a child.

When it was in robot form, it looked like Prime.
When it was in vehicle form, it looked like a lorry.

Now I know it's a toy, and I know it's a relatively crude and simple example, but the principle stands - it's possible to retain relatively simple G1 designs which pass for both robot and vehicle forms without being hideously over-designed and over-complicated. I'd keep his mouth shield activated permanently too as it always was in G1.

Obviously a scaled up live action version would require more detail, but not to the extreme end of the spectrum that Bay went to with many of his transformers.

Megatron was a perfect example, when you have this level of detail it becomes difficult to even discern key features - add in fast moving action scenes and it becomes near impossible.

 

[CyclopsSummers]

According to me its not necessary to reboot. Actual saga is a mix-based on all transformers universe:

G1/G2 (80s/90s), Robot in Disguise (2001/2002), Unicron Trilogy (2002/2006)

Reboot would reinvent his own universe without taking care of original stories from these severals versions

 

[elgaz]

Target: 2006 was a great UK G1 comic storyline which, with some alteration, would have been a novel way to produce a Transformers live action trilogy.

You've got Prime, Megatron, Ultra Magnus, Unicron, time travel, the Wreckers, Emirate Xaaron, Earth/Cybertron scenes, an insane Galvatron ...... what's not to like

 

[The Overlord]

I think a better question is "what should be done with Transformers after Last Knight"?

They could reboot the series from scratch or they could keep the same basic continuity and revamp the series by ignoring some of Bay's bigger flaws and changing some details as needed.

 

[TheVileOne]

I think they won't do a full reboot from scratch and will try to salvage what they have.

 

[Jochimus]

I think they won't do a full reboot from scratch and will try to salvage what they have.

Either way, it won't make much difference if they don't flush the pipes.

Hell, just to make it easy on whatever new guy they'd get, I'd go a step further: since these movies have spent so much time going on about Transformers in the distant past, maybe Paramount should just pull from the Star Trek and X-Men playbooks and bring in time-travel as a means of completely wiping the slate clean. I mean, it's not like it'd be much of a stretch for this franchise anyway, and as most of the iconic Autobot and Decepticon characters are dead by this point it would at least provide a means of bringing them back without introducing Yet Another ***damn Mystical Space MacGuffin to do it.

 

[TheVileOne]

LOL, I'd rather they not do time travel. Because honestly, doing a time travel to wipe these movies from existence just seems silly.

The Bumblebee movie has already apparently started production, so it seems they are pushing forward no matter what.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

LOL, I'd rather they not do time travel. Because honestly, doing a time travel to wipe these movies from existence just seems silly.

The Bumblebee movie has already apparently started production, so it seems they are pushing forward no matter what.

The filming date keeps getting pushed back and they have under one year to finish including post production so we'll see.

But I doubt it makes 100 m DOM if they do finish so the end is near.

 

[BOT001]

I voted for a reboot.

However, I want to see how will the whole "Cybertron attached to Earth" situation will play out. When that thing is solved or concluded, I would really love to see some Transformers movies without that much attention to humans and their puny lives.

 

[Confusion]

I voted for a reboot.

However, I want to see how will the whole "Cybertron attached to Earth" situation will play out. When that thing is solved or concluded, I would really love to see some Transformers movies without that much attention to humans and their puny lives.

Yeah! We suck. I want some Cybertron focus.

 

[TheVileOne]

I want them to stop treating the Transformers as pets and background characters who just sit around and occasionally fight and say goofy crap. And also making sure they have genitalia.

 

[jackjohn]

Reboot isn't be happening. I think No need to discuss on this topic

 

[Grootster]

Reboot isn't be happening. I think No need to discuss on this topic

TLK is underpreforming, so if future movies don't improve, it's entirely possible that they will reboot.

I must say though, I don't want a reboot unless the brand is sold to an entirely different company (Legendary wouldn't be too bad.) Either continue this universe and try to improve it, or just cancel it entirely and wait a decade or two. It would be a massive disappointment to me if they reboot with people like Bay and Lorenzo di Bonaventura still having a hand in Transformers. It seems pretty clear that Paramount has to go before we'll get a good TF movie series (not to say it's impossible we'll get good movies in this series in the future.)

I voted for a reboot.

However, I want to see how will the whole "Cybertron attached to Earth" situation will play out. When that thing is solved or concluded, I would really love to see some Transformers movies without that much attention to humans and their puny lives.

Even if we got a really good reboot series under a different studio, I honestly think it would still be focused on humans. Live-action movies have to appeal to the general public, and I still hear a lot of people say that they can't see AI as actual characters.

I myself don't have a problem with humans in Transformers, as long as they're well-acted and interesting (which we haven't got in the current series yet, in my opinion). In fact, I feel like they're almost necessary. Without humans, the overall premise of the brand is lost (robots disguising themselves as pieces of our technology). I'm not gonna lie, I tried reading the MTMTE comics, and they kind of bored me after a while, because of this exact problem.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Well, the Bumblebee movie is already filming so a re-boot isn't happening for now.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Bumblebee is supposed to start filming in August.

They didn't cancel because they already finished pre-production which is expensive.

But I'm not sure how successful Bumblebee will be since interest in the TF series has plummeted.

 

[TheVileOne]

How would you even start a shared Hasbro movie universe?

 

[Jochimus]

But I'm not sure how successful Bumblebee will be since interest in the TF series has plummeted.

Make the most of the lower budget to allow for more robot time, and emphasize that it's NOT a Michael Bay film in the promotion of it, and that would probably make a difference.

How would you even start a shared Hasbro movie universe?

By actually picking up the ball that was dropped after AOE of humans taking advantage of Cybertronian technology - while the rest of the world is still chanting "Autobots Go Home!" despite their having saved our ^$$es from annihilation at least four times, have some group of unsavory busybodies deploy military tech with Cybertronian upgrades in a very public and very populated area in an act of terrorist revolution unlike anything the world's ever seen committed by humans. Translation: COBRA.

Then after establishing G.I. JOE in response, down the road have the Joes create an elite undercover infiltration/espionage unit utilizing vehicles and personal gear similarly outfitted with Cybertronian tech to root out a network of COBRA collaborators that turn out to have connections inside the U.S. military itself. Translation: MASK.

This would also take advantage of one of the major reasons Marvel's shared universe has sustained itself this long: shifting genres. Transformers can be pure popcorn sci-fi spectacle, G.I. JOE high-tech full-on military action, MASK tricked-out spy fare. As for worrying about the GA's familiarity with the likes of MASK, heck, just play up the connection to Transformers...audiences didn't know who the Guardians of the Galaxy were until 2014; I think a MASK movie made anywhere near as decently would have a shot.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Make the most of the lower budget to allow for more robot time, and emphasize that it's NOT a Michael Bay film in the promotion of it, and that would probably make a difference.



By actually picking up the ball that was dropped after AOE of humans taking advantage of Cybertronian technology - while the rest of the world is still chanting "Autobots Go Home!" despite their having saved our ^$$es from annihilation at least four times, have some group of unsavory busybodies deploy military tech with Cybertronian upgrades in a very public and very populated area in an act of terrorist revolution unlike anything the world's ever seen committed by humans. Translation: COBRA.

Then after establishing G.I. JOE in response, down the road have the Joes create an elite undercover infiltration/espionage unit utilizing vehicles and personal gear similarly outfitted with Cybertronian tech to root out a network of COBRA collaborators that turn out to have connections inside the U.S. military itself. Translation: MASK.

This would also take advantage of one of the major reasons Marvel's shared universe has sustained itself this long: shifting genres. Transformers can be pure popcorn sci-fi spectacle, G.I. JOE high-tech full-on military action, MASK tricked-out spy fare. As for worrying about the GA's familiarity with the likes of MASK, heck, just play up the connection to Transformers...audiences didn't know who the Guardians of the Galaxy were until 2014; I think a MASK movie made anywhere near as decently would have a shot.

Hmm, some interesting ideas. Especially exploring multiple genres.

Though I hope the reboot TF and GI Joe first and start Hasbro Cinematic Universe with a clean slate.

 

[TheVileOne]

Make the most of the lower budget to allow for more robot time, and emphasize that it's NOT a Michael Bay film in the promotion of it, and that would probably make a difference.



By actually picking up the ball that was dropped after AOE of humans taking advantage of Cybertronian technology - while the rest of the world is still chanting "Autobots Go Home!" despite their having saved our ^$$es from annihilation at least four times, have some group of unsavory busybodies deploy military tech with Cybertronian upgrades in a very public and very populated area in an act of terrorist revolution unlike anything the world's ever seen committed by humans. Translation: COBRA.

Then after establishing G.I. JOE in response, down the road have the Joes create an elite undercover infiltration/espionage unit utilizing vehicles and personal gear similarly outfitted with Cybertronian tech to root out a network of COBRA collaborators that turn out to have connections inside the U.S. military itself. Translation: MASK.

This would also take advantage of one of the major reasons Marvel's shared universe has sustained itself this long: shifting genres. Transformers can be pure popcorn sci-fi spectacle, G.I. JOE high-tech full-on military action, MASK tricked-out spy fare. As for worrying about the GA's familiarity with the likes of MASK, heck, just play up the connection to Transformers...audiences didn't know who the Guardians of the Galaxy were until 2014; I think a MASK movie made anywhere near as decently would have a shot.

I dunno. MASK was never really a spy show. Also, wouldn't MASK kind of be redundant compared to GI JOE?

So basically, you are proposing a full reboot of GI JOE as well?

I got to be honest though. Just because Marvel was able to make a Guardians of the Galaxy movie work doesn't mean Hasbro can do the same with MASK. Look at how Paramount and Michael Bay have driven the Transformers franchise into the ground after a tremendous lead.

 

[Grootster]

A while back I was really hoping for a reboot, but the more I think about it I'm not sure I want one.

If we get a reboot there are several things that I can almost guarantee will be in it:

1. More Hasbro control
2. G1 designs
3. '86 movie references galore
4. Aligned mythology
5. Windblade will be a main character

In addition to these expect more focus on mysticism over sci-fi, a more cartoony tone, less non-vehicle disguises, awkward references to other TF series, poorly attempted gender/race diversity among the robot cast, and possibly less transformations.

To me it would be better to stick with the current universe than to reboot with these things. To be honest I'm a bit afraid of Hasbro trying to cram this stuff into the current Bayverse (some of it's already starting too seep in). Some of it would be fine if it were done intelligently, but I almost guarantee it will be handled just as poorly (if not more) than the current movie series.

For all the people complaining that Bay's continuity is screwed and beyond repair...it will be worse if Hasbro has their way...they love merging stories that don't fit in with each other. For anyone who doesn't know, the Aligned mythology is a Frankenstein nightmare of almost every major TF continuity in existence, and there's no way to work them together (and no reason to). I strongly suspect that a reboot of the movie series will turn out about the same as a lot of Hasbro's other recent stuff.

 

[Jochimus]

Yeah, since the success of the first movie Hasbro has convinced themselves that they're great storytellers and really, they're not.

At this point I have no more faith for a reboot than for continuing as is, so short of stopping altogether, they need new directors and writers for the franchise to cut the wheel hard left and break clean out of formula - no more Ancient Buried Mystical Space Whatsits or Great Transformer Moments in World History. Do all that, stick with the lower-budget plan with simpler robot designs, and that'd be practically a fresh start right there.