No? It can be done well, but often those who want to make a __ universe just do it poorly. Ideally each entry should be able to stand on its own and serve as a satisfying story without just existing to get people to see the next movie, or leaning too heavily on other films because you'd alienate those who didn't see the earlier films.

 

Its not that I hate the idea, I love me a good crossover. But given that all of Hasbro's modern movies have been averaging mediocre at best and awful, stinky bullshit at worst, with 2 decent movies outta the lot, I'd say they need to start making good films on average first, before they try anything of the sort.

@Jochimus and @Rojixus You two have hit the nail right on the head. Also Joch, I totally read your post in Daffy Duck voice.

 

I think it would be hard to do specifically with Transformers involved - I liked some of the IDW Hasbroverse stuff but ultimately they had to either make things derived from Transformers or just only bring them together for brief periods of time because the power levels are just so drastically different. For example the MASK vehicles are reverse-engineered from Cybertronian technology and powered by Ore-13. That pretty much required a very well-established Transformers series before you can even approach the point where humans have access to enough tech to do that.

That doesn't have to be the only method obviously, but I think it would be a struggle to make anything believable coexist with the Transformers in terms of power. Why bother watching a shared universe MASK or GI Joe movie when they'll inevitably sidelined in the crossover when they could just be better served as their own thing.

 

I don't hate the idea but I don't really see the benefit. Shared universes work when the properties are meant to coexist. But the Hasbro brands are each kind of their own thing. So people that want a GI Joe movie that's a good war flick with perhaps minimal sci-fi tech beyond some of the crazy vehicles might not want the Transformers interfering. And the Transformers fans who don't want their movies overrun by humans aren't going to want GI Joe to be stealing the spotlight or, worse yet, saving the day over and above the Autobots. The movies are better served by being their own thing.

There's also the issue that proper shared universes require multiple movies of setup before you can even pay them off. Marvel went through most if its Phase 1 movies with them being pretty disconnected and only having small, largely superfluous nods to one another before Avengers pulled it all in. So in order for this to work you need the time to put all the pieces in play and that means having multiple successful movies on their own. Otherwise things go south really quickly and whatever good you might've done gets dragged down with the bad or the bloated, self-important mess that promises big things it can't possibly pay off yet (look what happened with WB's "Dark Universe", or the rapidly faltering "Monsterverse" with Godzilla and King Kong and the like, or even the rapid self-immolation and subsequent fracturing of the DC universe. It's not as simple as "make a bunch of movies and stick them together" it requires planning, patience, persistence of vision, and a deft touch that most studios and marketing execs seem unwilling or unable to work with)

Let's just get a string of good Transformers movies first. And any good GI Joe ones. And anything at all out of the whispered plans and hopes of any other Hasbro brands (which, at this point seem kind of risky and like it'd banking on retro nostalgia to carry a name that doesn't have any modern presence (MASK, ROM, Micronauts, Action Man, Visionaries, Zoids). I know people will say that fans flocked to Marvel's stuff when much of the early MCU were kind of B-tier players since the big stuff like the X-Men and Spider-Man were tied up with other studios, but as much as I love some of those brands (they could do something interesting with Visionaries, though I doubt it would ever successfully integrate with a broader Hasbro universe) I'm not sure it's even fair to call them B-Tier in the pop culture sphere.

 

Well that is exactly what they do in most crossover comics, right?

I get that it might be hard with Bayverse, given the extensive interactions with the military and massive alien invasion damage over 5 films, but no reason GI Joe couldn't have been around during Bumblebee.

My understanding is that the latest idea was supposed to be a five property universe - Joe, MASK, Visionaries, Rom, and Micronauts. No Power Rangers, Monopoly, or My Little Bronies. Or Transformers for that matter. At some point they were talking Joe, Transformers, and... Jem? But once that movie went south so did that idea.

Be that as it may, how do those different toylines mesh together?

MASK could work well, and in some ways bridges the gap between GI Joe and Transformers - a paramilitary force of code-named operatives with transforming vehicles. My biggest question is why is it you could have a world with two very similar organizations (Joe and MASK), each fighting a different snake themed terrorist organization, without them swapping foes more often? But I digress..

Visionaries... I love Visionaries. But it was post-apocalyptic. I guess you could have Transformers either land, return, or reawaken in the devastated future Earth, but good luck bringing the other properties into it.

ROM... It's SF so it immediately can tap into TFs. A single being from the stars fighting aliens? Parallels TFs a little too closely there - how many evil aliens are on Earth?- but why not? I mean Rom incorporated kinda well into the Marvel Comics Universe (better than most toy and media crossovers).

And that brings us to Micronauts, which ALSO was well incorporated into Marvel Comics. Here we are dealing with another dimension (of sort). Once you've opened up that SF door, lots of weirdness can walk through. And being in its own world, you don't have to force it into being a regular thing.

Now, with all that said, the problem with meshing any of these franchises is that they are team-based properties. Each one brings a half dozen or more heroes and villains to the table. The comic book universes work in part because they are largely solo enterprises, with set aside team up books. Team crossovers are relatively rare events, and a headache to properly coordinate. And that is in comics, where you have ongoing narratives. Trying to juggle that many parts in a 2-3 hour film would be a logistical nightmare. Except ROM because he could just walk on through any one of those other properties without too much fuss.

 

Another part of the problem is that along with having all the heroes be joined together, you also have to account for their villains - heroes are only as good, narrative wise, as their counterparts they exist to fight. Recalling back to when Disney randomly had a Marvel Crossover with Phineas and Ferb, the boys paled around with some of the heroes, but likewise some of the villains like Red Skull had to work with the show's "villain" Dr. Doofenschmirtz because they thought the bumbling idiot mad scientist shtick was actually a cover for a truly evil supervillain like themselves (when in fact Doof really isn't that evil).

Likewise, the MCU itself has a large rogues gallery of villains that are involved - it simply avoided having to deal with them when everybody was combined up by killing the villains off at the end of the films. The only main film villain who didn't actually die or otherwise get permanently incapacitated at the end of a non-Avengers film was Loki - and he isn't even a main villain after the first Thor film, being a supporting protaganist to Thor in the following Thor movies before he straight up dies at the beginning of Infinity War (and technically Red Skull but he pretty much stops mattering after the first Captain America film given he only returns to be an exposition dump machine for the Soul Stone in Infinity War/Endgame).

With a Hasbro Cinematic Universe, you'd need to have Decepticons, Cobra, Dire Wraiths, and whoever the bad guys are in MASK and Visionaries. That's a LOT of characters ad motivations, etc. to handle simultaneously.

 

The original Superman/Spider-Man comics kind of set the pattern. One villain from each company working together. At some point the heroes trade blows before teaming up, usually switching their opponents. Some of the story is set in each city (NY, Metropolis), with heroes swapping their normal setting to visit the other for part of the story.

I could totally see something like Cobra and VENOM working together. Or hell, even a crossover in which its the heroes of one vs villains of the other (MASK vs Decepticons, or Autobots vs Dire Wraiths).

Anyway, none of this really works in film format. Comics, or an animated series, that would be another matter. If you could get a Joe and TF series running concurrently, as they did in 84-87, no reason you couldn't do a crossover story here and there.

 

No.

 

I think the reason why Marvel are successful is because they don't set out a "house style" and force filmmakers to abide by it. I know people who still can't believe that Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy exist in the same world.

The MonsterVerse knows this, too - the 2014 Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island and KOTM were all, tonally, very different films, in that one's a very grounded (for a giant monster film) kind of disaster film, the second's a Vietnam War flick with monsters, and the third's basically a modern epic fantasy. And Paramount tried to get Knight to conform to the Bayverse "house style" with Bumblebee, but Bay stuck up for Knight in meetings and stopped them from doing so.

Wasn't that why Phineas and Ferb's Star Wars crossover was basically the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern version of A New Hope?

(To those who don't get it, Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is an absurdist, tragicomedic play which is basically about what two minor characters, the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, were doing during the events of Hamlet).

 

Yes

 

Yes! I hate the idea.

Transformers is a franchise of over 500 characters ... not just Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron and Starscream, there are hundreds of characters to explore.

And I'm still waiting for that moment.

 

I'm not an expert on Cinematic Universes (because I couldn't care less about them), but I think they'd be better off creating an ANIMATED Universe, aka DCAU. You know, Batman: The Animated Series, Superman's series, Justice League, all interconnected. Transformers and G.I. Joe and, perhaps, some other Hasbro properties are more fit for animated shows rather than singular movies. Animation may even stretch the limits of what's "acceptable" for a shared universe and Power Rangers may not even look too goofy and out of place.

But that's just my humble opinion. The one who wants will always find a way to succeed... or to frag it all up.

 

Your idea is a good one

 

Hate? Not exactly.

Being in the middle is where it's at I guess.

 

This is how I prefer a shared universe in my opinion, make the characters meet after they already establish their own setting and have their own ongoing stories.

I remember back then that my mind was blown when characters from the X-men appears in the 90's Spiderman cartoon because I watched both shows consistently when I was a kid and had gotten used to their usual stories.

Then you have the Justice League cartoon by far the best depiction of a Justice League in my opinion where Superman and Batman team up with other heroes after watching their respective series I was in cloud nine.

I think the reason G.I.Joe and Transformers managed to have a shared universe in the 80's is because they were the big current line that have shows owned by Hasbro at that time.

So there needs to be at least two successful franchise to even have a shared universe before they try.

 

I'm definitely not a fan of the shared universe concept and hope that Hasbro keeps Transformers standalone. Transformers has enough material to sustain itself for several films, with over 35 years and multiple continuities to pull from. Lumping it in with other properties just limits what can be done with the franchise.

 

You're going to be sorely disappointed, then. The well-known characters are always going to take a greater priority over the lesser-known guys.

For the Autobots, that's Optimus, Bumblebee, Prowl, Arcee, Jazz, Ironhide and Ratchet (and, in recent years, Windblade and Grimlock).

For the Decepticons, that's the Big Four (Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave and Shockwave) and maybe Ravage and Laserbeak. Every generation has its own favourites, of course, but those are the names that appear consistently.

Now, I can see fairly well-known characters like, say, Jetfire, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Brawn (based on his appearance in the opening of Bumblebee) or Wheeljack appearing in future films.

However, future films featuring the likes of Dirge or Hoist is wishful thinking, aside from background roles or hi-and-die cameos. Really wish that wasn't the case though - I'd like to see the Scavengers get their own movie, personally.

 

No.
But I'm skeptical because it looks like jumping on the bandwagon. Which is not the best prospect in terms of the execution.

 

I feel the same way. I think it limits all the franchises involved. Also, I think they need to nail a solo franchise first. I know the Bay movies made a lot of money, but I wouldn't say they nailed the material. Once they can lock down multiple franchises individually then they could maybe consider the idea of a crossover. Even then I think it should be a stand alone event kind of like The Joker was.

 

Yes, it's good for them because they will have new ways for milking their franchises, but it's bad for us because it gets tiresome, it's OK in the comics but I won't sit through all the movies of all the franchises involved for many years waiting for a movie that actually interests me.