I was asking for an article with the director where he says it’s a prequel to the 2007 movie.

Bumblebee being mute and turning into a Camaro doesn’t tie it in either, as that’s a part of the character that has been adapted into other continuities. I’d argue that Bumblebee as a mute-sports car is more recognizable than his G1/VW form is for the general public.

Besides all that, it was fairly well documented that while the movie did start production as a prequel, it shifted itself into a reboot later on.

Travis Knight even said that himself.

 

This statement is entirely innaccurate.

 

Yes I would.

 

Actually there are reasons for all of that.
1. Megatron was originally in the film, having a g1 design, back when it was originally a hard prequel but when Travis Knight pitched the idea of laying the ground work for a reboot that end credits scene was removed.
This pitch led to the creation of the opening, the cybertron scenes, cliffjumper's death and I believe a rework of the Prime Bee scene at the end. Bear in mind that Bee got delayed from June 2018 to December 2018 so they could put these new scenes in, if i recall correctly, Knight and his team did the Cybertron scenes over the summer. The reason Megs isn't in the Cybertron scenes was purely budget, Knight has confirmed that a storyboard and concept exist, but they just didn't have the budget to do it, also why so many characters share parts.
They never state its a reboot in the film for the fact that they were unsure on how it would have performed, it was a point of "if it does badly we will just say its a prequel and leave it behind but if it is responded to well, lets reboot it with just enough vagueness in case we still want to connect it."
2/3. Sector 7 and Simmons, again in the case that they still wanted to connect it, however, I think adding them in will work unintentionally in the reboot's future, having a human enemy will work if done right, look at MECH in Prime.
3. Bee's face was designed to be easier from the beginning as Knight felt the bay design was too rough for the story he was telling, that is something that couldn't have been changed with how far they got into production. But it is not proof that this is a prequel.
4. Again, Bee being mute was a left over from the Bayverse version, it could have easily have been removed and retconned but Knight kept it so he could tell a story that has inspirations from E.T and Iron Giant. Going back to the face, the easier face was done to carry the emotion instead of a voice (personally I loved it)
5. Again, The camaro was simply something they could'nt reshoot or change, besides even if they wanted to, the scene works well to show Bee growing up and moving on, fresh and ready for anything, it's a great scene.
Overall, while it has not been called a reboot on record, its clear that this is a reboot, but with just enough of the old stuff layed in there in the case that it failed so they could just say "oh no it was a prequel, forget it". No matter what, after how badly TLK performed, the series was heading towards a reboot anyways, general audiences we fed up of the usual bay fest and were happy to get something fresh and unique with Bee. I just hope that Rise of the beasts and the other movies in the works can keep that same magic.

 

hoping for a mix, maybe it comes out the arm, i can definitely see prime arming himself up with a shield to take on Scourge (and I am assuming / hoping the Preds as well)

 

Agreed.

I believe so yes. I remember when the trailer date for BB got announced they had both Travis and John Cena do a video saying the trailer was dropping tomorrow and they were both on set in the forest setting we first see Bee arrive in doing reshoots.

I could as well, maybe it's an upgrade Wheeljack or one of the Maximals gives him.

 

Ye, maybe both, I do wonder if prime will get some kind of upgrade, hopefully not a full body, more like a jetpack or something. Either way I can't wait to see Scourge's design

 

Maybe, if that Lego figure is ROTB related then he might have a jet pack in the movie. and agreed, him, Wheeljack and some others I'm hyped to see how they look.

 

Oh true and ye, I mean I excited for everyone really aha

 

Except Hasbro did officially label Bumblebee as a reboot for the film franchise. With ROTB picking up a few years after Bumblebee, I think we can safely call this the second movie in the reboot.

 

I wouldn't really say they officially labeled it a reboot. They called it a "new storytelling universe", which does seem to imply reboot, but it could also just be interpreted as more of a "whole new world of possibilities" kind of thing. It seems to be an intentionally vague statement.

There's also the possibility Hasbro and/or Paramount changed their mind during the past three years...stuff changes all the time in pre-production. The script for ROTB wasn't even written in early 2019 when they made that statement. I think what they say during this marketing campaign will determine where this movie fits in continuity (assuming they don't avoid the topic).

Even with Bumblebee's changes, 95% - 99% of the movie still works as a prequel to the Bay movies. And from the little we've seen of ROTB, they seem to be maintaining a fair amount of visual continuity with the Bay movies. And it's not just holdovers from BB, it's stuff that was absent in BB and being brought back (like the angry eye symbol). And possibly even story continuity with stuff like Megatron absent.

I do think it's more than possible that the movie will be a reboot. It could even lampshade the issue and break away from the Bayverse by, say, having Megatron show up on Earth. But I think it's also possible that the movie will end with Bumblebee reverting back to the unmodded Camaro and Optimus leaving Earth, setting things up as nicely as possible for '07. I think people need to brace themselves for the possibility that they could go the prequel route. It's hard to know what discussions have gone on at Paramount during the past three years.

 

I doubt they'll leave it as clean as setting up the 07 movie at the end, because if this does well lord knows they're going to want to squeeze another movie in before Bayverse #1.

It's like how Fast and the Furious kept jamming movies into the gap before Han "died" at the end of 3.

 

April 15 is tomorrow let's see what they've got in store for us...

Spoiler

You shall get NOTHING until summer of 2022.

 

Someone may have pointed this out but it's crazy how subtle yet apparent the changes were in Prime's design. (Sucks that ThreeZero's Primes can't look up very much.
And his elbow area is VERY similar to TF1-3 Optimus's!

 

Nice job with the marks around his head. Also yeah it is crazy how subtle the differences are yet they make the design look more different than it probably actually is. Also looking at your 3A Prime and this binder image, they definitely rotated his lower arm and the parts are phasing through one and other

I wouldn't even be surprised if it's the same or slightly modified parts. Cause it both looks the same and has the same details just seems the gold parts sticking out were compressed more closer to the inner circle.

 

Sad Prime.

 

Ok, bit of a delay on this one, but while I was trying to make a mock-up of ROTB Optimus, I noticed something about the arm; what appears to be the new front of the arm looks like the side of the arms from Bumblebee:

and what appears to be the new side, looks like the back:


So either they've shifted everything round 90 degrees in the new design, or the image just has him in a really awkward pose.

 

I think it’s just they have him in a awkward pose, the gold part and other parts seem to be almost clipping into position in this render. Cause yeah that is weird.

 

I think this render just had it rotated weirdly, because there some serious clipping going on.

 

And of course, awkward (which is an awkward-looking word itself I just realised as typing) poses aren't anything new for movie renders, especially some we got for the first couple of movies.