Anyone thinking they should bother to have a unified universe is kidding themselves. What they should really be working on is actually making good movies. Wether or not GI Joe is in the movie or not is irrelevant and shouldn’t be the main priority right now and there really isn’t any point. Why bother?

 

I thought unified universe as in a universe where 'every' fan can enjoy the series.

 

The problem with bringing brands like G.I. Joe into the Transformers brand is that what was one of the biggest fandom complaints about the live action movies? Not enough focus on the robots. Bringing in G.I. Joe or the Avengers or you name it into a Transformers movie would almost certainly result in the Joes and Cobra, who can be played by real humans, getting more focus than the Autobot and Decepticons, who need to be expensive CGI, and probably at the robots' expense, too, in terms of their role in the story.

Plus, I am not certain there's this huge demand on the part of the public for a M.A.S.K. or Micronauts film, any more than there would be a huge enough desire on the part of the general public to make that hypothetical $450 million Beast Wars film Lorenzo threw out there profitable by any stretch.

 

Still a bad idea.

 

To be fair, they are making a Micronauts film.

I just don't know how well their gimmick will translate to a movie. They're small people from an alternate universe, and the main selling point of the toys was that all of their parts were interchangeable. IDW had something interesting going with the Enerchange concept, being the explanation for their interchangeable parts, but still...How do you make that work in a movie setting?

Which of course is the reason they should focus on making a good movie instead of whether or not it can share a universe with Transformers.

 

Yeah, and that second paragraph is a big part of it. And not just how you make it work, but how do you get it to appeal to enough general audience members to make it profitable? Because I guarantee you the average person on the street does not know what Micronauts is. Transformers, even with The Last Knight and Bumblebee making a lot less in box office than the previous films, still has a cultural presence much greater than that of Micronauts.

 

If it were Marvel Micronauts, joining the MCU, it'd probably have more interest from the general public just for being part of the MCU. As it is, they're making a movie about a relatively obscure toyline whose popularity mostly came from a Marvel comic and whose gimmick has been co-opted by other toylines (I distinctly remember Ben 10 toys that basically did the same thing).

 

THE TRANSFORMERS CINEMATIC MULTIVERSE OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE CONVOLUTED MESS.

How do you make a cinematic universe of Transformers films when you never originally planned for one?

How do you explain the inconsistencies and contradictions sequels bring about upon the previous narrative?

How do you introduce wildly different interpretations and concepts without alienating your existing audience/fan base and giving them a reason to tag along for this new iteration? *cough*Beast Wars*cough*

Multiverse.

Multiverse?

Multiverse.

What's a multiverse? Well, I'm *urrp!* glad you asked Morty! Imagine infinite versions of your world, where things can be as insignificant as which leg you first put a sock on this morning to as drastic as living life in a world ruled by giant salamander overlords. It's like alternate timelines. In timeline/universe A you became a multibillionaire, while in timeline/universe B you were in a horrible accident and spent the rest of your life in a coma. Then there's timeline/universe C where you became a multibillionaire but also were in a horrible accident and spent the rest of your life in a coma. In timeline/universe D none of the above ever happened, but you perfected your grilled cheese recepie! Oh boy! And in timeline/Universe W everything is made of Flamin' Hot Cheetos...including you! Hahahaha! Ahem. All these multiple universes, as strange and unusual as they may get, are part of 1 group, a group of universes that consists of everything that ever existed, currently exists or ever will exist.

Multiverses help us to explain away errors in storytelling events as simply being other events that occurred in other universes.

So how can we apply this to our current situation?

I gave it some thought, considered the factors involved, and came to this conclusion:



Sorry, this conclusion:



At its core we have an underlying Transformers universal hub. This hub connects to all other iterations of the Transformers Brand. We'll throw Vector Prime in there because traveling to different universes to save them is his schtick and he's gonna prove useful later: Vector Prime - Transformers Wiki

For the live action films, we have 3 Universes so far: The Good, The Bad, and The Bumbly.

The Good universe was the classic trilogy. End it at 3 films. Kill Megatron. Autobots are heroes once again. Boom. Done.

The Bad universe is where it shits the bed. It's the darkest timeline. The Autobots are hunted & most are killed. Megatron's alive again. Unicorn is inside the goddamn Earth. The story and timeline makes an absolute mess of itself(looking at you Sir Edmund). And somewhere during this time Shia Leboeuf is "apparently" killed off despite him being our main character for the first 3 films (WTH Paramount?!?!?).

The BumbleBee/Knight universe basically tries to save everything by keeping almost nothing. Instead of the Allspark, we have good ol' classic Energon. Cybertron is wartorn but not a complete loss. Megatron is somewhere...Gone are the connections to Earth's past. The film is waaaay more family friendly and accessible to kids (as it should be). The jokes are not crude humor and actually land. The streamlined robot designs are easy to take in and the action/robot fighting in very understandable. The film proves G1 designs can work in live action. The Decepticons finally have unique personalities and characterization. It's just all-around good.

So how can Paramount salvage this narrative mess and keep it all loosely connected?

How can Lorenzo justify getting that Beast Wars spinoff movie made?

How can Paramount introduce well-cherished past iterations of Transformers lore into live new action films?

A Cinematic Multiverse.

A.k.a. By adapting elements from the TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE idea to live action. Remember Transformers Universe? That 2000's era toy line of wild repaints that sucked various characters out of their own time and space to join together in a fight on Unicron, by Unicron, for Unicron? Gee that kinda sounds like Marvel's Secret Wars and the Beyonder. Yeah, that's what we're doing here. In live action. And we can beat Marvel to the punch on it if we try.

We just so happen to already have some key Transformers Universe fiction multiverse-hopping players in the live action films:

Unicorn

The Fallen (servant of Unicron)

Sideways (servant of Unicron)

The 13 Primes

Cogman as...Vector Prime? (c'mon, clockwork robot ain't fooling nobody. It'd be an easy addition to his story).

The goal is not having everything make sense together as a one universe story(like Marvel after the Disney Fox buyout), but having everything be connected as groups existing universes, different stories under one roof(like Marvel before the Disney Fox buyout), whose actions and aspects could hop around and influence each other.

By doing this, we open the Transformers films to being able to constantly offer and reboot themselves as new universes while being able to interact and cross-over to fellow existing Transformers film universes. Want a film where all the Primes work together? Done. Want to see Grimlock fight Beast Wars Megatron? Now possible. Want 80's Simmons to hatch some absolutely crazy plan with present-day Bayverse Simmons? You got it.

The Multiverse opens up a whole universe of possibilities and keeps all those fans invested in the past films still invested in the ongoing series of new films. They ensure this film franchise has a future and an ever flowing stream of content to sample from. And they can retroactive have fractured narratives finally begin to make some Goddamn sense.

And that's my crazy idea to fix the Transformers live action film series as a whole.

 

I mean, yeah, look at how profitable MLP is these days. They are a serious threat to Transformers toy sales.




 

 

I agree with others that making Sector 7/NEST from the first three movies G.I. Joe would have been pretty cool and make more sense but overall I generally prefer Transformers to be its own thing.

Though doesn't help the only Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover I've enjoyed was Tom Scioli's.

 

I don't think Hasbro should try to "Cinematic Universe" ALL their brands together. This ain't Marvel where everybody knew everybody from the get-go and lived under one roof.

The only brands they should mash together are Transformers and G.I.Joe. They have had a past together in comics. We've been asking for TF/Joe toys for a while, and other than the SDCC sets, some Transformers Vehicle Mode homages, the recent comic book series, and kid robot blind boxed items, we haven had an actual line of retail Transformers with little gijoe pilots (think the original Star Wars Transformers).

And if they want video media, they should start small like with an Animated movie, something like what G.I.Joe did with Resolute. So start with an animated movie, some toys, a comic book issue(s). Then if it turns out to be popular and profitable, move forward with more content and larger projects (video games, a full on animated tv show) until you're fully confident in doing a Hollywood Blockbuster Crossover and not having it crash and burn.

We fans are used to the idea of a TF/Joe crossover, but you gotta get the General Public used to your idea first before you go all out with it. Ease them into it being fine to have Cobra Commander and Megatron joins forces. Then when you have them on board will you have the ability to safely sustain such an idea under newcomers and the existing fan/customer base.

But trying to connect ALL your brands together? No. No way in Hell will you accomplish such a goal.

 

I mean, Gobots could work, but I don't know how they wouldn't just be seen as a rehash of Transformers. Easier in the long run to just use the Gobot names for Transformers (or, as Bumblebee's deleted scenes implied, as an in-universe fiction that the Transformers just happen to resemble). But yeah, you're right. No need for every brand under Hasbro to be interconnected. And even if these crossovers happen, you said it, general audiences have to eased into the idea first. Establish other brands in the public consciousness, then work out whether or not they can be brought together for a crossover.

 

There was Combiner Wars Viper who was pretty much a Wild Weasel crossover - he also makes a GREAT addition to the CW Bruticus team.

But the SW Crossovers? Those weren't designed by the usual TF team and IIRC they weren't really that good.

 

I knew about that. Did you know Energon Snowcat is also based on a Joe vehicle?

 

Yup. Probably the only reason why I bothered tracking one down on the Junkion Exchange. He really isn't that bad a figure, all things considered...though at the same time, the Energon Decepticons were better than the Autobots because they weren't crippled by the stupid 'everybody combines with everybody!' gimmick.

 

Brilliant. Now everyone can get along without the need to say,"Your taste sucks."

 

As an optimist, I believe a shared universe can work, if put in the right hands.

Rik Alvarez himself said it best

 

You fools. You god damned fools.

There's plenty of EXCLUSIVELY TRANSFORMERS LORE FOR A CINEMATIC UNIVERSE.

They should dive right into the Marvel TF influence that made Bumblebee stand out to begin with and have a linear 'main story' following Bee and Optimus while the Headmasters miniseries could be adapted into a 'Guardians of the Galaxy' type isolated story before crossing into the main story on Earth.

Have prequels set on Cybertron, Wreckers spin offs set concurrent to the Bumblebee narrative and the Headmasters narrative.

Then have Time Travelling Galvatron and Co come from an 'alternate future' where Unicron has already won as his herald to this timeline but with their own betrayal plan.

Lines blurr, alliances form and deteriorate.

Before or during this.

Starscream subsumes the AllSpark (which should be at Hoover Dam with S7) taking the role that the Underbase did in Marvel and that can be his big moment.

It can also take the role the Creation Matrix did in early stories and depending on which side has it at the time they create new soldiers. Maybe optimus Prime's personal Matrix can do it too, but at great cost to his own energy which makes it a desparate move not often utilized.

Shockwave should be Marvel Style, Starscream a competent long game traitor, and Soundwave Marvel Style as well. Whispering in the ears of different leaders all for his own personal safety and power seat, as well as for the 'good of the Decepticon cause'

Combiners, Pretenders, Binary Bonding. Hell, bring Minicons in as Unicron's spawns that the AllSpark gives real sparks then once Unicron, Starscream, and Galvatron are dealt with spend time focusing on the Decepticons trying to enslave them and the Autobots trying to defend them. Some Autobots mistreating or mistrusting them would be interesting.

Starscream subsuming the AllSpark can lead into Starscream's ghost.

Beast Wars could be an arc set in the far flung future between Mechabeasts on post-human 'Gaia' because Unicron's destruction near Earth seeded the whole star system with 'Dark Energon' that's gestated in the passing millenia.

Fuse Lio Convoy and Optimus Primal into one leader character with a new name. I like Primal Prime perhaps if we're gonna have the Prime Dynasty continue.

The villain ought to be Beast Megatron in everything but name. Magmatron isn't a bad name or maybe Gigatron.

That'll just be totally detached due to its far far future status. Long enough Cybertronians have forgotten Earth and humans.

No need for other Hasbro IP when Tranformers is so ripe, ready, and long overdue for a faithful cinematic expose that almost writes itself anyway.

Oh yeah. Get the film rights to Death's Head and Circuitbreaker too because they're essential components. It's doable with the Spider-Man prescendent. Fuck me, bring in Spiderman for one good showdown with Megatron too.

 

Among the many, many problems present in you just slapping down lore...you're acting like the House of Mouse would even allow this.

Marvel owns Death's Head. He even got his own book some time ago.

 

Did you even read my post mang? Disney themselves have opened the gate for future deals with studios in the vein of the deal that they made with Sony regarding Spiderman. Marvel proper let IDW use Spiderman and Circuit Breaker and Deaths Head in their TF Marvel reprints too.

So if someone at Hasbro really wanted to get those characters into a film, both those precedents exist. They don't even really need to use money, they could just 'trade characters'

Deaths Head and Circuit Breaker come over to the TFCU, Bee/Optimus or maybe even some C lister plus an MLP character can be used in Toy Story.

Plus there's the phenomenal working relationship the companies have since Hasbro makes most of Disney's toys for all of its major brands. Marvel, Star Wars, etx.

It's the farthest from impossible its ever been at this present moment..