After the previous confirmation of the movie being set in the 1980s, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura also teased Bumblebee's possible incarnation in the movie as the traditional G1 Volkswagen Beetle model - though obviously take it with as much salt as you can grab.
“You might even see a VW Bug,” Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura tells EW. “You never know.”
The producer also talked more about the story of the movie, and why now is the best time to work within the Paramount/Hasbro shared universe, name-dropping a couple of other toy franchises as he went.
“The interesting thing about doing a spin-off is it has to have some familiarity with the franchise, and then it has to have its own distinct qualities for it to stand on its own,” di Bonaventura says. After that, Paramount is trying to see if Transformers — and a few other Hasbro toy properties, like M.A.S.K. — can become part of an expanded universe.
Obviously, the Bumblebee film serves as a kind of prequel to the Bay movies.
“It’s the story of a 17-, 18-year-old girl who, through a series of events, she and Bumblebee find each other, and they make each other whole,” di Bonaventura said. “Bumblebee’s a very loving character. He’s got a lot of heart, so of course the idyllic life of these two is interrupted by the evil Decepticons. And how are they going to be able to deal with the problem without Optimus and without everybody else?”
The full piece can be found
here, and is best served accompanied by this previous
interview too!