None of them could even sustain a comic. How could they manage a movie?

 

Just think of the effort it took for the MCU to pull off what it did.

 

I agree. Galvatron. Creators. Dinobots. Transformium. All minimized or ignored completely.

And I do think there actually was more a framework than given credit before the Writers' Room. I can think of two examples off the top of my head.

Spoiler

One, during the production of Transformers 4 there was a set leak of melee weapons, the same ones seen on Lockdown's ship. One was revealed to have belonged to Megatron. That photo and story was taken down at Paramount's request. However, I suspect it would have been revealed in TF 5 that Megatron was a Knight, but that since Megatron was thought dead - despite surviving as a head and human prototype - Lockdown and the Creators did not consider capturing him, hence LD thought he had caught all of the Knights who were still alive.

The logical route would be for Galvatron to reclaim the Knights' Temenos and upgrade himself into his original Knight form rather than inexplainably go back to being Megatron and working for Quintessa.

Two, during the Transformers 4 Blu Ray extra features it was revealed that the Knightship came from a world other than Cybertron.

So yeah, I think there was quite a bit that was ignored in TLK that was previously planned. Did someone at Paramount or Hasbro not like where they were going, and instead want to abandon things? Who knows.

Even having a single, metallic Creator would have been fine if 1) the existence of other Creators/Quintessons was mentioned, and 2) the Creators were revealed to have either upgraded themselves into metal bodies or have been a conglomeration of races both biological and mechanical. I would have been fine with that.

Also, no indication that the Creators wanted to, "Sweep the chessboard clean." No indication of a larger universe; Earth and Cybertron are again the only planets that seem to matter again. I suppose Nemesis Prime and Knight Megatron with their red marks could be seen as a Creator trying to control their creations, but even then the latter's control and transition from Galvatron was not shown at all. Nor is there any reason given as to why Megatron is working for Quintessa beyond that they are both trying to revive Cybertron, nor is any motivation given to Quintessa.

 

What's funny is at the start, Hopkins says the words "Makers", as if they sound like they're aware of the events of the previous film only to forget following on.

TLK may not have the public production drama like Fant4stic but as far following production on the board goes, I'm fairly certain there was drama.

 

If ehren kruger was apart of that room and had a strong hand on the story....



Tuna Kaan Koç on Instagram: “they know he's coming #digitalart #vfx #fanart #art #hologram #ui #graphics #scifi #aliens #thelastknight #transformers5 #transformers…”

 

Isn’t Lorenzo behind the idea of merging two movies into one? Ugh, can someone dig some proof up along with his other antics? I can’t seem to find any! It irritates me to see bay take most of the heat when the average moviegoer is unaware of lorenzo’s Buffoonery.

 

I dont know if anyone had confirmed Lorenzo involvement in merging the two films. But even if he did, Bay did also had a hand on it, since he was pitched the idea of a World War 2 film, a King Arthur movie and the idea for TF5 from Akiva. If Bay didnt liked the merging he could've stepped down, since he was not signed to do another, he only signed to do it after the decision to merge these stories was decided

 

Can't track it down but I'm sure he openly boasted having combined three scripts into one film in an interview.

And Bay doesn't give a shit about Transformers - he honestly hasn't since TF4. He was doing this purely for both a multi-million paycheck and as leverage down the road to work on passion projects. Pain and Gain only happened because Bay had made bank for Paramount on Transformers 1-3.

 

I agree.  

 

I never forgave Akiva Goldsman for Batman and Robin.

Pretty sure Michael Bay only had interest in doing the original TF film because Spielberg got him to.

I feel that the reason the Marvel cinematic universe and the Dark Knight Trilogy worked so well was that the directors and producers in each case respected the source material.

11 years on and this franchise is still waiting for similar treatment.

 

I wouldn't hold my breath, frankly. The fact that Transformers is a toy brand first and foremost is always going to color attitudes toward its story potential.

 

It would help if the toy lines weren't absolute shit like they were in AoE. TLK wasn't that much better because the only figure worth getting was Nitro Zeus.

 

The stories told behind characters toy packaging have been far more interesting than the live action films.

 

Like, get the people who write the toy packaging fiction and the people who did those amazing HUB Prime commercials.

 

This is total speculation (and maybe just a bit of fanfiction), but I think that Transformers was supposed to go all the way to 9 main installments plus however many spinoff movies they wanted. TLK was an odd transition movie that had to continue the story of AOE but also launch its own massive franchise of spinoffs (which is a stupid idea but whatever), TF6 would be the story teased by the mid-credits scene of TLK of Unicron awoken, then swiftly defeated. This would also, possibly, lead to some sort of merger of the last Transformers on the binary planet system coming together. TF7 would be the "wiping the chessboard clean" movie that Lockdown teased, where the creators come from another planet to destroy Cybertron and Earth, only to be properly defended by the very few Autobots and Decepticons left. TF8 would be Prime finding the Silver Sword and gathering all the knights across the universe, including the dinobots, dragonstorm, and probably some other lizard themed warriors, as Prime proves himself worthy of leading all of them. And finally, TF9 would be taking the battle to the creators in a $500m costing space-set epic that had 35 hours of non-stop, glorious action. Over the course of these films, Cade learns how to use Excalibur and gains the powers of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, while Izabella and Vivian recruit people across the planet, including Mikayla, Lennox, and even Simmons for Earth set battles. Oh, and this might have been the way to reboot GI Joe around the 7th or 8th movie. Alas, I'm sad to see this saga will never happen.

 

 

Speculation or not, that sounds glorious! The sword Optimus grabbed from the knight ship could have been much more valuable for the plot. Alas, it seems bud light and useless jokes take their place.

 

Ya. The first 45 minutes of TLK are great, but after that it just goes stupid. Why would we want to see Optimus Prime be a great villain and bring the apocalypse to Earth when we could watch not-C3PO make sushi instead...

 

Haha. Cogman mand could have been great. If he actually was a head master. Nothing worse than a transformer film desperately trying to be star wars.

 

I really wish they had kept the headmaster idea. It would even fit perfectly with Cogman's temper, they could have had a lot of fun with that.