Paramount's BUMBLEBEE May Have Quietly Rebooted The TRANSFORMERS Franchise

Paramount's BUMBLEBEE May Have Quietly Rebooted The TRANSFORMERS Franchise

Michael Bay's Transformers franchise spans 12 years and 5 films that have collectively grossed over $4 billion dollars. However, a new report says Travis Knight's Bumblee has quietly reset the franchise.

By MarkJulian - Feb 16, 2019 11:02 PM EST
Filed Under: Bumblebee
Transformers fans may finally be getting the cinematic universe they've always wanted. A new report from TFW2005 states that Hasbro and Paramount are planning to use Bumblee as a launching point for a new Transformers cinematic universe. Previously, the film had been described as a prequel.

Transformers: The Last Knight hit theaters not too long ago in June 2017, roughly 18 months before director Travis Knight's Bumblee was released in December 2018. It was the lowest grossing film of the Michael Bay-directed Autobot pics, amassing $605.4 worldwide in a film series that has studio expectations of $1 billion or bust. Perhaps that was the precursor for the shift in thinking as Paramount quietly rolled out Bumblee with a lower production budget and box office expectations.

Currently still playing in select theaters, Bumblee sits at $458.2 million worldwide and is being hailed by the critics as the best live-action Transformers film to date.



On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug.
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Jimster
Jimster - 2/16/2019, 11:15 PM
About time they finally made it official. Enjoyed Bumblebee. Can't wait to see where things go from here.
SpiderBloke2099
SpiderBloke2099 - 2/16/2019, 11:27 PM
$605.4? I think there's a 'million' or 'm' missing from that tally...
Tensorpants
Tensorpants - 2/17/2019, 1:11 PM
@SpiderBloke2099 - Note: only professional journalists bother to a) proof-read or b) go back and look at comments and fix any mistakes that they missed.
dracula
dracula - 2/16/2019, 11:52 PM
If this is going to work, they are going to have to give Optimus more personality than just being a great leader, they should take at least a few points from Transformers Animated, all the main characters in that series had clear arcs, and had the best Megatron. If they do an Optimus Prime movie, make it an origin story and show him becoming a great leader like Animated did
TheUnworthyThor
TheUnworthyThor - 2/17/2019, 12:04 AM
Well that’s fantastic. The franchise needs it. Don’t be afraid to connect it to your Hasbro Cinematic Universe though. And seriously give Bumblebee back the ability to speak. It’s fun to keep the radio thing for jokes but give him the chance at actual dialogue, heroic lines, and defined arcs.
Spidey91
Spidey91 - 2/17/2019, 12:08 AM
Surprising absolutely no one. The dumbasses at Paramount were just playing coy despite that the movie itself couldn't scream "REBOOT!" louder if it tried.
But hey, I'm glad this is the new basis for things to come. And hopefully they can deliver on the promise of more characters, better designs and bots with actual personality .
dracula
dracula - 2/17/2019, 12:12 AM
@Spidey91 - Hopefully they give Optimus more personality than just being a great leader, do an origin movie and show him becoming a great leader
JeighJeigh
JeighJeigh - 2/17/2019, 12:14 AM
Definitely the best Transformers film to date. Could actually see what was going on during the action scenes as well. Please make more!!!
dracula
dracula - 2/17/2019, 12:32 AM
@JeighJeigh - Hopefully they keep Travis Knight
L0RDbuckethead
L0RDbuckethead - 2/17/2019, 12:40 AM
They "may have"...?



Anyone who saw the film *should* be able to realize that...
Spidey91
Spidey91 - 2/17/2019, 12:57 AM
China saved this movie's ass so hard
Kevwebsz
Kevwebsz - 2/17/2019, 12:57 AM
It definitely did

OT: Punisher S2...is it boring? I haven't watched and i wasn't really into season 1.
Ace101
Ace101 - 2/17/2019, 1:00 AM
I haven't seen the movie but isn't sector 7 still in this and based out of Hoover Dam and isn't megatrom still stuck in ice or captured by sec 7?
dracula
dracula - 2/17/2019, 1:11 AM
@Ace101 - If they are starting fresh, they should just turn sector 7 into GI Joe.
Spidey91
Spidey91 - 2/17/2019, 1:23 AM
@Ace101 - Sector 7 is likely just something that was left from their prequel plan.
Also, Megatron is a no-show, and the military claims that this is the first tine they have encounter alien life, so no, he's not frozen in this. Even the Decepticons get access to the military's computers. If Megatron was somewhere on Earth they would've noticed.
eagc1995
eagc1995 - 2/17/2019, 8:00 AM
@Ace101 - Yes S7 is still there and Hoover Dam is there, but there is no Megatron in the movie, not even a single reference.

But lets keep in mind the movie was written and filmed as a direct prequel to the movie, there is even concept art with Bumblebee in World War 2 body from The Last Knight and they even made a prelude comic to the film which shows Bumblebee on earth during the 1960s which was supposed to fill the gap from Bee's adventure in WW2 as seen in TLK and before his 1980s adventure in the movie.

But during reshoots they added new scenes that would remove any ties to the Micheal Bay films.
BlackIceJoe
BlackIceJoe - 2/17/2019, 1:05 AM
Bumblebee was great and if the next Transformers movies are like it, that will be phenomenal.
Kyos
Kyos - 2/17/2019, 2:11 AM
If they'd clearly filmed and marketed Bumblebee as a hard reboot the chances of me watching it would've been significantly higher. As it was the potential of connections to the Bayformers series was a huge factor for me to go see Spider-Verse again instead.
eagc1995
eagc1995 - 2/17/2019, 8:02 AM
@Kyos - Its only ties to the Bay films is Sector 7, Bee robot mode and his camaro form, otherwise most of his ties to the Bay film were severed, i do recommend checking it out
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 2/17/2019, 2:14 AM
Although I would say a look at how Bumblebee fits in the timeline, it almost certainly has to be a reboot. But then again, the timeline is already pretty messy from movie to movie.

Anyway, hopefully this will be the first movie in the Hasbro shared movie universe, because that is a shared universe that could be really interesting
ThatAlexDude
ThatAlexDude - 2/17/2019, 2:25 AM
Finally...

*Stan Bush's The Touch Intensifies*
WackyBantha
WackyBantha - 2/17/2019, 3:14 AM

kRAVENklaw
kRAVENklaw - 2/17/2019, 3:17 AM
Good.
Now PLEASE just finally put Prowl in a movie.
And don’t pull a Cliffjumper on him.
IronMandarin
IronMandarin - 2/17/2019, 4:10 AM
It absolutely had to be a reboot.

Optimus Prime and the other autobots arriving on earth in the 80s throws out the first film where they arrived in 2007.

And also the film established that this was the first time Bumblebee had come to earth which throws out Transformers 5 where he was in World War 2.
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