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Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise

Posted by william-james88 Jul 15, 2023 at 11:17pm CDT 55,536 views
While the title is obvious to many, it's nice to see it affirmed and it does give us a new perspective for the franchise going forward. There was a glimmer of hope that the never ending talks about whether or not the Transformers live action film franchise was rebooting with these newer films would end once Rise of the Beasts came out. But it didn't because the film chose not to be too much of a change stylistically from the other live action Transformers films. Plot wise, connections to other films were kept vague and they even introduced a tool that any writer can use to bring whatever character they want into any point in time (the Transwarp key, which while now destroyed is still around in the past to be picked up and used at any point in time). Some fans have accepted that this "wishy washiness" and lack of commitment to a full on reboot of the franchise is all intentional on the part of Paramount, but others still want a clear answer.
Well, for those wanting a real answer, Steven Caple Jr has one: Continuity in this franchise DOES NOT MATTER. Even though this is all the same film series, the events will not match up, because each movie or series of movies focuses on their own thing. They should instead be treated as stand-alones. And not just the new films, but the previous Bay films too. Below is the transcript of that part of the interview, within the Empire Podcast Spoiler Special with Steven Caple Jr, where continuity is discussed.

Interviewer: In terms of the continuity of the franchise, are you worried about matching it up with the first Bay film, which suggests that Optimus has never been to earth before…
Caple Jr: … But now it’s kinda broken already. For me, I’m not like fully worried about it. There are things I would love to stay within that line, but at a certain point, we all know it, Bay has admitted it, I had certain conversations with him like, in terms of tracking the storyline by movie 3, 4 and 5 (5 specifically i would say), now it’s kinda like …
Interviewer: … they were freestyling it
Caple Jr: They were freestyling. Unicron is planet earth, it was things like that. Cool conceptually but that’s a lot to unravel and will we ever see Unicron? Cause now it’s Earth. Probably a reason why they stopped right there. So like, for me, I’m not worried about it, it’s about what’s best for the movie. For me, I have my classics. We got movie 1 with Sam witwicky, it’s a classic. Then we got 3, some of the best action I’ve seen in any movie, best Transformers battles, like it was really good. Those are the movies, they’re like stand-alones. For us, we just make sure about our story and if it tracks through each one [we make]. If we try to hold ourselves to what another storyline/ timeline was, we’d definitely be in trouble. Cause at a certain point, I don’t think anyone knew exactly where they were going with 4 and 5.


What you just read is the new official take on the matter of continuity: that it does not matter. You'll see that the word reboot is not uttered because that's not what anyone making these films want to convey either. This film, Bumblebee, AOE, TLK, and the initial trilogy are all their own stories within the same franchise, but with no need to connect perfectly to eachother. They are all constant (soft) reboots in their own way, if you want to see it that way, but also all (soft) reboots of Bayverse. So the Bayverse is far from dead, it is instead fragmented, and anything can happen from here on out. So have fun with that take.

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Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by Silver Wind Jul 16, 2023
My interest in the movie franchise was never that high after watching the first live-action Transformers film in 2007 (sans the 2018 Bumblebee film), but this completely kills it for me.
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by noctorro Jul 16, 2023
This is silly and why Transformers up untill now is still just silly action fun and a toy commercial.

I would love for a team to take Transformers seriously and of course for them to be competent (unlike the netflix show, my god the writing is some of the worst I've ever seen).

Transformers needs a reboot, and a different top management. The same buttfaces are still in charge of the movie franchise and as long as they are there, all Transformers movies will suffer.
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by Lore Keeper Jul 16, 2023
"We're not concerned with continuity" is writer speak for "We're not competent enough to write a compelling serialized story, so we'll just make a bunch of unconnected stories about whatever we want."
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by -Kanrabat- Jul 16, 2023
Lore Keeper wrote:"We're not concerned with continuity" is writer speak for "We're not competent enough to write a compelling serialized story, so we'll just make a bunch of unconnected stories about whatever we want."


Exactly. The MCU was able to do it for over a decade, and it's still going. So why can't Transformers?
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by william-james88 Jul 16, 2023
-Kanrabat- wrote:
Lore Keeper wrote:"We're not concerned with continuity" is writer speak for "We're not competent enough to write a compelling serialized story, so we'll just make a bunch of unconnected stories about whatever we want."


Exactly. The MCU was able to do it for over a decade, and it's still going. So why can't Transformers?


Probably because they wrote themselves into a story they no longer want to follow
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by blackeyedprime Jul 16, 2023
If it works for star wars the why not transforners... Oh wait.
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by TulioDude Jul 16, 2023
Image

There has been this back and foward with this subject. I'm not sure if I believe it 100%.

We will know for sure when they announce the next film.
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by Brokebot Jul 16, 2023
Yeah, this is why I have no sympathy for the writers on strike right now. Most of them are already criminally overpaid for churning out disjointed nonsense that an AI can do for little or nothing.
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by bluecatcinema Jul 16, 2023
I have no problem with this. Considering the mess the original series became near the end, the chance to overlook some of it is welcome.
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by Slashercon Jul 16, 2023
bluecatcinema wrote:I have no problem with this. Considering the mess the original series became near the end, the chance to overlook some of it is welcome.

I do have a problem with this considering the same mistakes that began to plague the original series will begin to fester in the new series. Playing loose and fast with continuity is why a good number of fans get disinterested with Ips like Star Wars, The MCU, The DCEU, and even as recent as Rise of the Beasts. And considering that ROTB isn't doing too well at the Box Office, this does not bode well for the future films. When you tell the audience that you don't care, they shouldn't be surprised when audiences show that they don't care.
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by bluecatcinema Jul 16, 2023
Slashercon wrote:
bluecatcinema wrote:I have no problem with this. Considering the mess the original series became near the end, the chance to overlook some of it is welcome.

I do have a problem with this considering the same mistakes that began to plague the original series will begin to fester in the new series. Playing loose and fast with continuity is why a good number of fans get disinterested with Ips like Star Wars, The MCU, The DCEU, and even as recent as Rise of the Beasts. And considering that ROTB isn't doing too well at the Box Office, this does not bode well for the future films. When you tell the audience that you don't care, they shouldn't be surprised when audiences show that they don't care.


The only continuity point that has been altered is the whole "Unicron is Earth" thing at the end of TLK. All things considered, not that big a loss...
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by DeathReviews Jul 16, 2023
What's that? The Bayverse/Live movie people didn't care a fig about "continuity"?

Image
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by Brokebot Jul 16, 2023
Slashercon wrote:
bluecatcinema wrote:I have no problem with this. Considering the mess the original series became near the end, the chance to overlook some of it is welcome.

I do have a problem with this considering the same mistakes that began to plague the original series will begin to fester in the new series. Playing loose and fast with continuity is why a good number of fans get disinterested with Ips like Star Wars, The MCU, The DCEU, and even as recent as Rise of the Beasts. And considering that ROTB isn't doing too well at the Box Office, this does not bode well for the future films. When you tell the audience that you don't care, they shouldn't be surprised when audiences show that they don't care.


Well said. Just because something original devolved into a mess is not justification to repeat the same nonsense. If you're using an IP to attract the built-in fanbase, but show that you don't give a damn about them or the story, you just ruin the IP.
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by cloudballoon Jul 16, 2023
Next: Di Bonaventura comes out and say the opposite. Yawn.

I discarded Bay's 4 & 5 from memory already minutes after their end credits. Don't even care to own them on media or digitally.

I never cared to argue with anyone whether BBM/ROTB is or is not a reboot. They SHOULD have been, and still COULD have been in my head and that's it, anyone else can consider different and I respect that. Caple Jr. should capitalize on the good will of the BBM & ROTB fans and move the next live-action movies further away from Bayverse and start telling stories in new coherent timeline. Don't jump all over the place because "such & such concepts are cool, let bend it in."

Personally I don't mind Bay designs for the Decepticons & Terrorcons factions (still need more colors). But the Autobots should continue to look like the BBM Cybertron ones or more humanoid, as being the "good guys" and thus need the connections with human, that's the way to go. Pay hommage to Bay & G1 designs to please most fans, but scrap the plot links to Bay is the smart move imo.
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by Sabrblade Jul 16, 2023
bluecatcinema wrote:
Slashercon wrote:
bluecatcinema wrote:I have no problem with this. Considering the mess the original series became near the end, the chance to overlook some of it is welcome.

I do have a problem with this considering the same mistakes that began to plague the original series will begin to fester in the new series. Playing loose and fast with continuity is why a good number of fans get disinterested with Ips like Star Wars, The MCU, The DCEU, and even as recent as Rise of the Beasts. And considering that ROTB isn't doing too well at the Box Office, this does not bode well for the future films. When you tell the audience that you don't care, they shouldn't be surprised when audiences show that they don't care.


The only continuity point that has been altered is the whole "Unicron is Earth" thing at the end of TLK. All things considered, not that big a loss...
And even then, there's the notion that ROTB Unicron was technically from the future, suggesting he eventually gets out of the Earth in some later era.

But, yeah, simply ignoring TLK is best for everyone's sanity.
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by Tyrannacon Jul 16, 2023
For many reasons, I have started to discard the Bay films from my viewing palette - especially after I attempted a full rewatch when TLK came out only to find myself disappointed. I discovered then I had a lot of issues with the film's continuity (or lack thereof) really from the treatment of specific characters on down. I have come to see every movie have the same plot from the '07 movies plot again, again, and again albeit dumbed down because of Bay's lack of care for developing and creating a story that connects in any meaningful way or has any worthwhile character development because of his concerns of explosions and lens flare. He's a director that is purely spectacle and eye candy and it shows, unfortunately. The effort put into the 07 films just dramatically vanishes by the time you make it to TLK. Does anyone remember the fact that Decepticons were capable of hacking and shutting down human technology? Effective owning us? It's never brought up again and they are never shown attempting that again. While the Bumblebee movie was a good departure from all that I was exhausted with the Bayverse at that point because there really was never a definitive "this is a reboot" and that was just beyond frustrating.

I still haven't seen Rise of the Beasts. I am waiting for it to come to a streaming service like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Max, or Hulu even. It may be a great film, it might not be, but if you can't respect the continuity or be creative enough to care to tie it all together then what is the point? If I wanted spectacle I'd go to a theme park.

Coming to a point so I don't get anger and pitchforks, I get that a lot of people grew up with Bayformers and it served as their intro to the series, which is cool and fantastic. If people love ROTB, good. If people hate it, good too. Each piece of media functions as it should, as an ambassador of the brand, and from that people find something else they like or enjoy in the series that keeps them hooked. Beast Wars opened that door for me, and there are some good and bad elements of that too. In recent years I've been sampling and I found I enjoy most of what I see unless there are a lot of problems with it like the problems in the Bayverse with not respecting your continuity or your story.
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by cloudballoon Jul 16, 2023
The recent Bay film "Ambulance" (supposedly) won some praises for its "maturity." So I rented it, and it was just as bad as anything he did. Bay hasn't learned a thing different.

Explosions alone don't sell a TF movie anymore I think. Bay's kind of action is so old-school now, the same non-sensical Bayplosion spectacles yield ever diminishing results in a franchise, it's just science. I got bored from the action, let alone the plot by TF3. And his views that robots are stupid, "people only interested in militarism & sexy people" (I'm paraphrasing) views are not fit for helming TF movies if you're looking for any depth for the bots imo.

But Bay did a good thing in giving Caple Jr. a fairly free rein in ROTB even though Bay's a Producer, credit where credit is due.

Way I see it, BBM is still a smart reboot, ROTB is a decent sequel to it. Pray that Caple Jr. don't mess up BBM's and his own continuity. Keep the scope of each movies manageable.

My ranking for fav live-action: #1 is a tie between '07 and BBM ('07 got the initial hype & now nostaglia, BBM is a better plotted story and got the better designs. Objectively I'd say BBM is definitive #1 in a few years), #3 is ROTB (not great, but competent enough, Caple Jr. is young as a director, give him room to grow), DOTM #4, ROTF #5. AOE & TLK don't deserve to be ranked as canon and best forgotten (other than some cool designs) for the sake of Bay.
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by AcademyofDrX Jul 17, 2023
Continuity is for nerds. Either the story works, or it doesn't, and continuity doesn't have anything to do with it.
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by First-Aid Jul 17, 2023
I think I made a long post a while ago about how, if you took one specific introduced element from each of the movies (including AoE and TLK), you could create a legitimate story that tied together. I doubt they will do that though. I wish I could find that post but I'm old and I forget where I put all my stuff...

...you would think the Writers Guild could come up with something while they are walking the packet lines to increase their $295,000 median salaries.
Re: Rise of the Beasts Director Confirms that Continuity is not a Concern within the Transformers Film Franchise (view post)
Comment by Tyrannacon Jul 17, 2023
AcademyofDrX wrote:Continuity is for nerds. Either the story works, or it doesn't, and continuity doesn't have anything to do with it.

Thank you for acknowledging our supreme intellect over everyone else. :lol:

Nerds make the world work after all, it's high time we got some credit for that. :P
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