There was a bit of confusion last week with the announcement that the
Bayverse was here to stay, at least in some fashion. Of course, no one associated with the films had said otherwise and the word "reboot" had never actually been used but some fans were eager to move away from the Michael Bay films of the past. Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura acknowledges this in his latest interview saying that he has definitely heard the disdain for Michael Bay's films and the joy at the change of pace and style found in the Bumblebee film, which focused more on character. Bumblebee proved that a film set in the Bayverse could be different enough to provide fans a new experience and future films will follow suite, it is a lesson the producer has learnt.
However, Mr Di Bonaventura did also hear many fans saying that Bumblebee did lack the level of action that came with a Transformers film. Afterall, it wasn't necessarily the action element that fans disliked from the Bay films. So future films will try to satisfy both parties, those looking for more of what the Bumblebee movie offered and those seeking more "
Bayhem". That was his choice of words, which you can read below in an
interview from Collider.
Also, while an Optimus centric film was on the table at some point, the producer has stated that this project has morphed into the buddy movie of Optimus and Bumblebee which will serve as a sequel to Last year's Transformers: Bumblebee movie. That tidbit was reported in an
interview with The River.
“…the audience had asked us several times, in different ways, ‘I want to get to know a Transformer better.” We did that. In some respects, definitely a tip to what the audience had said to us. The interesting part is when you set out to do something like that, you don’t exactly know the ramifications of it. In this case, the ramification of it was, for the people who didn’t love the movie, was not enough action. Because you’re telling a more intimate story, therefore you can’t. So the criticism we got from some fans was like, “Hey, come on.” It was funny, I was just in Japan…and one of the reporters said to me, ‘I love the movie, I love this, I love this, and I was very tired of Michael Bay.’ I said, ‘Uh huh, I’ve heard this before.” And he goes, ‘But you know, after watching this film, I kind of wish it had a little more Michael Bay.’ It was really funny. I said, ‘Listen, I completely understand. I like what Michael does, too. Two different films, two different attempts.'”
“Several lessons have come out of this. One is that we have the freedom to tell almost any story. The other is that, how strongly the audience identified with the strength of character and emotion. I know the next Transformer, our attempt anyway, is to sort of do a fusion of Bumblebee and the Bay movies…a little more Bayhem. And a little bit more of the character falling in love within the emotional dynamic of the movie. One of the things I want to do—and I hope we pull it off—is, we did it with Bumblebee because he’s so cute and he’s so accessible, but he can’t talk. I think the more human we can make these characters, the more people are going to like them.”
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