I don’t ever come to the movie forums, so that means I don’t ever see whats talked about here, but I’ve never seen anyone ever on this site talk about this canceled prequel movie called Operarion Skyfire, which was originally coined during the Writers Room thing they did to come up with a future for the live action movies. It seems like initially, it would have followed a new character called Skyfire during the Pacific War. However, theres also a lot of concept art for what seems to be the Bumblebee Movie, before Travis or anyone ever got onboard that seems to deal with Nazi Pretenders trying to un-freeze Megatron in Germany.


Theres also some art mixed in that seems to indicate that the Knights were originally planned for a seperate movie, and the Quints would have been more traditional in what would become TLK.

I also read that the end of the Bumblebee movie was supposed to end with them finding a type of “Skull Island” where the Maximals and Predacons crash landed. But thats just from some 4chan post, so take that with a grain of salt.

 

Never heard of this, but the concept art looks pretty sick.
Megatron fighting alongside cyborg zombie looking nazis is the dumbest shit ever, though. Even for Bayverse standards.

 

There's so much potential in a WWII-set Transformers story, and IMO the live-action design aesthetic is perfect for it. (keep in mind Bumblebee Blitzwing is the best realization of the aesthetic in execution IMO) I wouldn't mind if it were retooled to be an independent movie, or maybe even to fit the reboot. Imagine all the characters as WWII era vehicles, in live-action. I still dream about what a WWII movie about Hound could be like.

I would not be surprised if Bumblebee was planned to set up a Beast Wars movie too, as it was originally the first expansion of the "cinematic universe." However, I doubt it, or any of these spin-offs, would've been good if TLK hadn't failed so hard it killed the Bayverse and made Paramount realize Bay's style just didn't work for actual storytelling. I'm glad it happened during the middleground of being too late to cancel Bumblebee but early enough to fix it.

 

That Quintessons concept art is awesome. It's a 100 times better than Quintessa!

 

Some of these designs remind me of a live action take on Hearts of Steal, and that Quintesson concept looks sick, and I like how they would have made Skyfire and Jetfire different characters.
It would be interesting to see how this would be, although it probably would have been another continuity headache if they went ahead with Megatron being active during WWII, but after TLK I wouldn't be suppressed.

 

This artwork looks pretty cool. I wish this project was real.

 

Operation Skyfire looks like it would have been a complete and utter trashfire in the same vein as TLK. This Ancient Aliens nonsense died a swift death and it should stay there.

 

Yeah, pretty much. When even the concept art feels like they're clutching at straws, that's never a good sign.

 

Yeah, I look at that stuff and I'm getting the uncomfortable feeling it just seems more like a knock off of Wolfenstein: The New Colossus.

Not to mention the absolutely hilarious fact you have Megatron bursting out of a military hangar in presumably Nazi Germany...when THE FIRST FILM ESTABLISHED HE NEVER WAS IN GERMANY. Sector 7 (established to have been founded around 1913 by the First Seven when they uncovered the AllSpark) knew Megatron was frozen in the arctic from Captain Witwicky's expedition (and had him committed for life as an insane person to hide this fact), and so had Megatron moved in the 1930s to the then under construction Hoover Dam (Finished March 1936) to put him next to the AllSpark because their markings were of similar style and thus presumably origin. And given that the whole point of the 2007 movie from the angle of the Decepticons was to find Megatron, even if the Decepticons were working with the Nazis, they had no idea where the hell their leader was until they go after the AllSpark from Frenzy's broadcast and Megatron just so happens to pop up alive in front of Starscream.

 

I heard that This was apparently one of the 14 spin offs that the planned along side a knights movie but instead they just stuffed it all in one movie

 

it was one of the many scripts devised in the writers room for the TFCU everything went to waste after the failure of TLK and maybe it was better that way

 

Operation: Skyfire was a movie idea pitched during the writers room, and ideas from it (basically just the setting) was incorporated into TLK. Sadly, I don't think the movie ever made it past that point. I think the other artworks were just created as inspiration for the writers' room. I think they were meant to show "hey, look at all the stuff we can do with Transformers". I don't think they were actual representations of something they were planning for a future movie. At least from what I understand.

 

Wasn’t there also an R rated bumblebee movie planned?

 

There's been a few threads about this actually.

 

It wouldn’t surprise me if that was planned at one point. Goodness.

 

I still want Operation Skyfire genuinely revisited and reworked....though change the characters, so no Bumblebee. Make Jetfire the protagonist instead. Kup would be the other main autobot in it. Maybe like 2 other Autobots who probably won't survive the movie...as for the Decepticons maybe the Combaticons.

as for how i'd end the movie probably a bit like what The First Avenger did

Spoiler

Jetfire makes the sacrificial play and gets lost in the artic frozen in ice....Kup believes he's the only survivor left and spends the rest of his days living with the family of the human ally in the movie until 1987 when Optimus arrives to earth, Kup is amazed that a Prime is showing up to Earth, his earth family allows him to drive off into the sunset to regroup. As for Jetfire, a few years later the Decepticons are mining for energon in the arctic and they uncover an amnesiac Jetfire in the ice, who has no memory of anything....except the name Skyfire. Setting up the next movie with some real conflict and drama with Kup trying to get his old war buddy to remember who he was.

 

Thats a great idea. But how are we going to tie in Sector 7? I mean its implied in Bumblebee that its the first time the government encountered the cybertronians.

 

What the government doesn't know can't cause a continuity error  .

 

Don't forget, it's also in his Revenge of the Fallen body. It's already a giant continuity snarl, having the wrong body just makes it worse.

 

Funny thing is, even if this was early enough in the game that the artists were just spitballing, had Bay and his people made this thing, I can't honestly say that I would have put it past them at that point to actually depict Megatron running around 1940s Germany in his ROTF body.