"The main hero is Optimus, as we all know and love," Caple said. "We're bringing Prime back, paying direct homage to Generation One. I care so much about this character that I really wanted to dive into Transformers, and I saw a Bumblebee and I was like, okay, Bumblebee had his own movie, but I want to discover more about Optimus Prime, dig underneath the surface, get underneath the metal, if you would, and like explore who he is and his experience here on earth, you know?"
"I know everyone has been asking like crazy, are we going, G1, are we going to G1?" Caple continued. "The answer is, yes, we are going to G1, the Prime."
The movie takes place about a decade before Michael Bay's Transformers -- and Caple plans to use that as an opportunity to explore a kind of "Year One" approach to Optimus Prime, and give fans a sense of how he became a great leader.
"It's 1994, and in a way, both the animated series and the Bay films treat Optimus the same in the sense of who he is as a leader, what is his drive?" Caple said. "All those things. What we've done is we're bringing it back to where you see how he becomes, what you're familiar with. And that's big new news."
And, yes, it isn't just a question of him spending 10 years on Earth. There's more to it than that, and fans will get to see what his "emotional" tie is to the planet, according to the director.
"When you say got to where he is, you mean 'we need to protect these earthlings and this biological planet,'" Caple explained. "The way to look at it is he's new to earth and he doesn't have a connection to earth the way we met him in the Bay films and the way we met him in the animated series where he's already a protector of Earth. And so in this film, it's forming, why does he have a link to humanity? And why does he have a link to earth? And that's emotional...At the beginning of Bumblebee, we showed, he escaped from Cybertron his home planet. And so in a sense, he's he literally is like an ex-pat here, right? He's landed. He's, he's an alien and he's never been here before. And so it allows us to get underneath say the stoicism of what we're traditionally presented in an Optimus."
Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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Jun 23, 2021 at 8:56pm CDT
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Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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Comment by TulioDude
Jun 23, 2021
Cool
Edit:A movie focused on Optimus's views most of time should be cool.
The closest is still Age of Extinction.
Edit:A movie focused on Optimus's views most of time should be cool.
The closest is still Age of Extinction.
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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That was the whole shtick of the RID 2015 Decepticons, did you dig that too?
Comment by william-james88
Jun 23, 2021
Deadput wrote:Sabrblade wrote:You jest, but Ben Yee described his robot mode as resembling a cross between Cybertron Scourge and Prime Predaking, but also with smokestacks that may or may not suggest a truck altmode.ZeroWolf wrote:Surprised no one has pointed out that if there's an scourge in this, compete with Predacons, maybe they're adapting a little of RiD 2001(this is a joke)
I like the idea of this Scourge having a beastial type robot mode but doesn't transform into a beast mode but instead turns into a black truck like Rid Scourge
That was the whole shtick of the RID 2015 Decepticons, did you dig that too?
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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Comment by ScottyP
Jun 23, 2021
Oh no, not this again. Anything but this again. I can't take another year of producer and director double talk about reboots and spinoffs and what the hell ever.
We just have to accept that the movie continuity is broken and no one working on these cares to fix it.
We just have to accept that the movie continuity is broken and no one working on these cares to fix it.
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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I didn't like the lack of variety with almost every Decepticon going that route and not every design was great but I did like a good amount of the Decepticon designs in RID,
Steeljaw and Thunderhoof are great characters in my opinion and that's just the top of my mind, I even liked the Lobster (Bisk) and Crab (Clampdown) characters but probably not in anything outside of that show.
Comment by Deadput
Jun 23, 2021
william-james88 wrote:Deadput wrote:Sabrblade wrote:You jest, but Ben Yee described his robot mode as resembling a cross between Cybertron Scourge and Prime Predaking, but also with smokestacks that may or may not suggest a truck altmode.ZeroWolf wrote:Surprised no one has pointed out that if there's an scourge in this, compete with Predacons, maybe they're adapting a little of RiD 2001
I like the idea of this Scourge having a beastial type robot mode but doesn't transform into a beast mode but instead turns into a black truck like Rid Scourge
That was the whole shtick of the RID 2015 Decepticons, did you dig that too?
I didn't like the lack of variety with almost every Decepticon going that route and not every design was great but I did like a good amount of the Decepticon designs in RID,
Steeljaw and Thunderhoof are great characters in my opinion and that's just the top of my mind, I even liked the Lobster (Bisk) and Crab (Clampdown) characters but probably not in anything outside of that show.
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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Comment by LinaNui
Jun 23, 2021
I really hate how I keep hearing that they are going to show us why Prime is the way he is, in a movie in 1994. Prime is millions of years old and has been fighting the war for a long time. No way he is going to be changing so much right now. I wish they would just stop trying to connect these new movies to the first 5. Because they keep doing this they are ruining there new movies and the old ones.
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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In this entire franchise the millions year war in regards to age has almost never factored into character development
ever
Otherwise the "young" characters such as Bumblebee wouldn't need any reason to go through their arcs, everybody would be an Alpha Trion or Kup, etc, nor would they act much like humans since living for millions of years would result in a living being so unlike any currently living human.
Honestly one of the best part of the Bay film "continuity" is that one could view the modern Autobots and Decepticons as only thousands of years old with the war not being that old, while we still had some ancient characters here and there but in their cases none of them had anything to do with the modern Autobots/Decepticons until the events of the movies they were in.
Comment by Deadput
Jun 23, 2021
LinaNui wrote:I really hate how I keep hearing that they are going to show us why Prime is the way he is, in a movie in 1994. Prime is millions of years old and has been fighting the war for a long time. No way he is going to be changing so much right now. I wish they would just stop trying to connect these new movies to the first 5. Because they keep doing this they are ruining there new movies and the old ones.
In this entire franchise the millions year war in regards to age has almost never factored into character development
ever
Otherwise the "young" characters such as Bumblebee wouldn't need any reason to go through their arcs, everybody would be an Alpha Trion or Kup, etc, nor would they act much like humans since living for millions of years would result in a living being so unlike any currently living human.
Honestly one of the best part of the Bay film "continuity" is that one could view the modern Autobots and Decepticons as only thousands of years old with the war not being that old, while we still had some ancient characters here and there but in their cases none of them had anything to do with the modern Autobots/Decepticons until the events of the movies they were in.
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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Comment by Rodimus Prime
Jun 23, 2021
Definitely should have gotten a better director.
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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Just have John Barber write a couple of prequel comic books, I'm sure he can work something out.
Comment by Munkky
Jun 24, 2021
ScottyP wrote:We just have to accept that the movie continuity is broken and no one working on these cares to fix it.
Just have John Barber write a couple of prequel comic books, I'm sure he can work something out.
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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He's just reciting whatever paramount said, there's this real intent with lying that Optimus Prime is the same in the cartoon and in the films, even Peter Cullen says it routinely that the are the same. They just don't want to alienate anyone, but in the end the film will be it's own thing (as Bumblebee was). This director actually has a vision and is making the project personal, that's enough for me to be interested. I think we should reserve a little bit of judgment until we see more of the film.
Anyways, I found an amazing quote by someone over at TFW, regarding the handling of continuity in the Bayverse:
Comment by william-james88
Jun 24, 2021
Rodimus Prime wrote:Definitely should have gotten a better director.
He's just reciting whatever paramount said, there's this real intent with lying that Optimus Prime is the same in the cartoon and in the films, even Peter Cullen says it routinely that the are the same. They just don't want to alienate anyone, but in the end the film will be it's own thing (as Bumblebee was). This director actually has a vision and is making the project personal, that's enough for me to be interested. I think we should reserve a little bit of judgment until we see more of the film.
Anyways, I found an amazing quote by someone over at TFW, regarding the handling of continuity in the Bayverse:
Frankly, you can't fit the Bayverse into the Bayverse. The Cybertronians found Earth because of the Allspark, but also the Decepticons were going to rendezvous here with Sentinel Prime, and also they had been here for millennia building Solar Harvesters into pyramids and whatnot, except that the Autobots arrived in 2007, but also have been here for centuries and fought in World War II.
Like, what the fuck.
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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100% this. This is where the humanising thing falls flat. Because anything living for millions of years wouldn't act like us. Also they've never really explored the time scale beyond signifying it as a big number. If the Civil War raged for millions of years and Alpha Trion, Kup etc were already "old", how old are they? What is a natural Cybertronian lifespan? What does the flow of time mean to them?
Big existential questions like this of course, don't bring in the box office.
So "War" (simple concept) happened a really, really long time ago but the alien robots that have waged it have no cultural identity of their own. So they decide to mimic the behaviours of a species that is very much beneath them on a physical, evolutionary and mental level. Like people befriending ants.
Also, even though the war has been waged by both sides equally, the Autobots aren't equally as aggressive, capable and ruthless as the Decepticons. Because, that is how the canonical millennia long stalemate would work in a Civil War.
AKA guffaws, explosions and pew, pews.
Comment by AllNewSuperRobot
Jun 24, 2021
Deadput wrote:Otherwise the "young" characters such as Bumblebee wouldn't need any reason to go through their arcs, everybody would be an Alpha Trion or Kup, etc, nor would they act much like humans since living for millions of years would result in a living being so unlike any currently living human.
100% this. This is where the humanising thing falls flat. Because anything living for millions of years wouldn't act like us. Also they've never really explored the time scale beyond signifying it as a big number. If the Civil War raged for millions of years and Alpha Trion, Kup etc were already "old", how old are they? What is a natural Cybertronian lifespan? What does the flow of time mean to them?
Big existential questions like this of course, don't bring in the box office.
So "War" (simple concept) happened a really, really long time ago but the alien robots that have waged it have no cultural identity of their own. So they decide to mimic the behaviours of a species that is very much beneath them on a physical, evolutionary and mental level. Like people befriending ants.
Also, even though the war has been waged by both sides equally, the Autobots aren't equally as aggressive, capable and ruthless as the Decepticons. Because, that is how the canonical millennia long stalemate would work in a Civil War.
AKA guffaws, explosions and pew, pews.
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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And all that we can lay at the feet at 80s Marvel
Comment by ZeroWolf
Jun 24, 2021
AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Deadput wrote:Otherwise the "young" characters such as Bumblebee wouldn't need any reason to go through their arcs, everybody would be an Alpha Trion or Kup, etc, nor would they act much like humans since living for millions of years would result in a living being so unlike any currently living human.
100% this. This is where the humanising thing falls flat. Because anything living for millions of years wouldn't act like us. Also they've never really explored the time scale beyond signifying it as a big number. If the Civil War raged for millions of years and Alpha Trion, Kup etc were already "old", how old are they? What is a natural Cybertronian lifespan? What does the flow of time mean to them?
Big existential questions like this of course, don't bring in the box office.
So "War" (simple concept) happened a really, really long time ago but the alien robots that have waged it have no cultural identity of their own. So they decide to mimic the behaviours of a species that is very much beneath them on a physical, evolutionary and mental level. Like people befriending ants.
Also, even though the war has been waged by both sides equally, the Autobots aren't equally as aggressive, capable and ruthless as the Decepticons. Because, that is how the canonical millennia long stalemate would work in a Civil War.
AKA guffaws, explosions and pew, pews.
And all that we can lay at the feet at 80s Marvel
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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Comment by AllNewSuperRobot
Jun 24, 2021
Indeed.
Nearly 40 years on, Transformers should be so much more than that by now. Sigh
Nearly 40 years on, Transformers should be so much more than that by now. Sigh
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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Comment by EvasionModeBumblebee
Jun 24, 2021
As someone who thinks the Bayverse is the best thing in Transformers, I’m ok with this being it’s own thing. I think the first 3 Bay movies work together nicely, but things get real screwy after that in terms of continuity. While I do enjoy watching all the Bay movies and the first few fight scenes in BB, it’s those first 3 Bay movies that I consider “canon”, and future films trying to adhere to that timeline will probably only skew the continuity even more.
I will say that I really appreciate the references to the Bayverse though, like Bumblebee’s head design in BB and the Camaro he scans at the end.
I will say that I really appreciate the references to the Bayverse though, like Bumblebee’s head design in BB and the Camaro he scans at the end.
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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Comment by That_Guy
Jun 24, 2021
Maybe I'm weird (ok there's truth to that). I find that with all of Bayverse with its plot holes, retcons and what not. They took a large aspect from Generation One and applied it to the movies as well. I mean how many times was that an issue in the series (granted it was to sell toys)
Constructicons were created on Earth, yet had a rivalry with Omega Supreme and even built Megatron.
Characters after the fact they were killed off, yet show up later in series three.
Starscream while friends with Skyfire was in his F-15 form and not Triangular.
Granted a lot of this was errors on the art part.....but hey, sounds like they threw that in Bayverse as well
I see Bayverse as it is, an opening to where we got more media and action figures from different eras more so than before they made the Movies.
Constructicons were created on Earth, yet had a rivalry with Omega Supreme and even built Megatron.
Characters after the fact they were killed off, yet show up later in series three.
Starscream while friends with Skyfire was in his F-15 form and not Triangular.
Granted a lot of this was errors on the art part.....but hey, sounds like they threw that in Bayverse as well
I see Bayverse as it is, an opening to where we got more media and action figures from different eras more so than before they made the Movies.
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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Comment by Solrac333
Jun 24, 2021
YAY! And BOO! Just reboot it. I'm actually not excited for the movie or the Netflix series.
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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Comment by WiseMan
Jun 24, 2021
1994, huh? So I wonder how long it took for Optimus to download the entire English language from the "Worldwide Web" (as he mentions in the first movie) with a 56K modem?
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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Comment by Rodimus Prime
Jun 24, 2021
I'm making my judgment on both what I've read so far about this new movie and the director's past work. Both are underwhelming. His only decent job was Creed II and that was because he had Ryan Coogler and Sylvester Stallone holding his hand. And from what I have seen so far about this new movie, regardless of where it comes from, is very discouraging. Of course, this all just a matter of opinion, if this appeals to you, that's your choice. For me, this will end up as something to pass time on a rainy day, just like Bumblebee was. And that movie was disappointing as well. It's the only TF movie I saw only once. The TF action and story was fine, but there were way too many humans and their interactions. And this new film looks the same, with 90s hip-hop garbage thrown all over it. And my guess is the Beasts will be in it for a fraction of the story, used as a plot device to trick more people into seeing it. Like you said, they don't want to alienate anyone. So they make it mediocre for everyone.william-james88 wrote:They just don't want to alienate anyone, but in the end the film will be it's own thing (as Bumblebee was). This director actually has a vision and is making the project personal, that's enough for me to be interested. I think we should reserve a little bit of judgment until we see more of the film.
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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Hot Rod didn't need to do that in The Last Knight
Comment by ZeroWolf
Jun 24, 2021
WiseMan wrote:1994, huh? So I wonder how long it took for Optimus to download the entire English language from the "Worldwide Web" (as he mentions in the first movie) with a 56K modem?
Hot Rod didn't need to do that in The Last Knight
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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At this point the continuity of the Bayverse is so bad that I think the entire Tyran cluster takes place inside the Unicron Singularity.
Comment by WiseMan
Jun 24, 2021
ZeroWolf wrote:Hot Rod didn't need to do that in The Last Knight
At this point the continuity of the Bayverse is so bad that I think the entire Tyran cluster takes place inside the Unicron Singularity.
Re: Transformers 7 Director Explains how his Film is a Sequel to Bumblebee and a Prequel to Bay Films
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Comment by ScottyP
Jun 24, 2021
Well, he tried a little with Bumblebee, then they changed the movie's intro late in production (or so it's been said) and it made that entire prequel impossible from the moment the movie came outMunkky wrote:ScottyP wrote:We just have to accept that the movie continuity is broken and no one working on these cares to fix it.
Just have John Barber write a couple of prequel comic books, I'm sure he can work something out.
