The very last seconds of The Last Knight alluded to the idea that Unicron was going to play a role in the future, but of course we got the prequel Bumblebee instead. I do think Unicron still plays a role in the series, but it has yet to happen, even even could still happen.

What if Scourge, Nightbird, Battletrap and the other Terrorcons are from the what happens after The Last Knight and are connected or even working for Unicron somehow. Perhaps after TLK, Unicron won and the Maximals are what remains or any form of resistance, living in a dead Universe dominated by the Chaos bringer.
The original Beast Wars series was set on pre-historic earth and time was a subject that was heavily utilised. What if the Maximals did the same in the Movie and came back to the past to stop their future from happening. Perhaps their attempts to change the future is why Bumblebee never appeared in WW2 and why he lost his voice box to Blitzwing rather than Megatron. The end result of the film could see the events after 2007 erased from history which could serve as a sort of the Reboot the series needed.

• Using the "Changing History" angle means that while the events after 2007 are erased, they still happened in cannon and therefore maintain a place in the story.
• Key Autobots and Decepticons will live as their deaths in the other films never happened.
• Certain plot elements can be revisited or even changed with said changes being attributed to the Maximals or Tettorcons tampering of the time line.
• Optimus Prime will never become Murder Prime.

 

This theory - that the Terrorcons are the Bayverse Autobots corrupted into Unicron's heralds/slaves after TLK - has never been convincing.

The principal reason for this is because it sounds like somebody watched the Kingdom cartoon on Netflix, took Nemesis Prime's backstory and changed the names. That's the biggest hint it's bullshit - it's completely uninventive.

And the fact that Scourge and Optimus have completely different voice actors (did Unicron corrupting OP also remove any traces of Cullen?) and physical appearances is another nail in the coffin.

 

Perhaps by travelling in time they created a new alternate universe or they travelled to an alternate reality.

 

The Bay movies in general are uninventive so the theory fits right in, nice and snug among all the other nonsense.

Also you do realize in the TF movie from the 80's both Megatron and Galvatron had different voice actors, correct? Also also last I checked Cyclonus shares little to no resemblence to Bombshell or whoever he was reformatted from, nor does G1 Scourge.

 

That's an interesting theory and for some reason I can kinda see it happening in the film. And I see you've got Big Duo Inferno for your profile picture, pretty cool.

 

Megatron and Galvatron have different voice actors only in the '86 movie, not the rest of the series but other than that yes

 

I don't remember half the crap that went on in that series and personally I could care less. It's so bad it makes Transformers Energon look like a masterpiece.

 

The fact you know his full name has made my day!

 

I agree with your assessment. The Last Knight's bullshit WWII backstory for Bee is only what can be resolved through the time travel theory of Rise of the Beasts.

 

Let's apply Occam's Razor here - a leak comes out, shortly after the Kingdom cartoon comes out on Netflix, that is pretty much Nemesis Prime's origin from the Kingdom cartoon with the names changed.

Whilst I do admit the Bay movies were either uninventive or failed to make use of interesting ideas that they raised, it's not the originality that's the biggest red flag to me - it's the timing of it. This suspiciously-Kingdom-sounding leak that came out right after the Kingdom cartoon is either a) the biggest coincidence in the known universe or b) evidence that it's BS. And I know which one I'd pick.

Which is more likely - the production team on this movie were clairvoyant rip-off-merchants (the Kingdom cartoon didn't exist when they were brainstorming this movie) or whoever came up with this "leak" just copied the Kingdom cartoon and changed the names?

Please admit that this theory is highly unlikely to be true.

 

They already said Bumblebee movie was a reboot last year.

 

I agree to an extent. Going by the trailer (IMO), this film seems (like the 5 that preceded it) to still be indecisive as to whether or not it wants to firmly decide exactly what continuity it follows and is a part of. The editing style of the trailer, the opening title card fonts, the lower half of Prime's face, as well as comments I've seen from 3C Films, and some other trailer breakdowns have me thinking this, too. Plus, there's the head design of the Terrorcon logo, which matches Scourge's head and is a direct throwback to Unicron's head. I have a feeling the "darkness" Primal refers to ultimately is Unicron, and the Terrorcons might be Unicron's minions. We shall see. . .

 

Rise of the Beasts definitely is pointing toward being connected to Bayverse

 

If orci/kurtzman and akiva were still more closely involved, I'd actually put more weight in this theory, since its basically what they tried to do on Star Trek.

 

I mean, TLK did the same thing with Unicron being Earth.

 

If I am not mistaken the trend with Unicron vibing within other planets and moons started in Armada where he was one of Cybertron's moons, Prime then introduced the idea of Unicron being inside of Earth which I assume is where the movie took that information from.

 

I would not be shocked if they did a Days of Future's Past thing and used time travel to reset things and/or start a new timeline. I think this is probably the best time to make a relatively clean break if they want to start down a new path.

Although, most of these movies are self-contained (or contradictory) enough, that they'll probably keep making movies without committing either way. The high-level producers are the same as ever and they seem pretty okay to let things coast along the same way as it's been going. Just go back and listen to all the crazy back and forth from the producers on if Bumblebee is a prequel, reboot, a soft reboot, a refresh, etc...

I wouldn't be shocked if they just keep plumbing the years between Bee and 07, or set things in a time/place that doesn't overlap with the first 5 movies.

 

It won't happen

 

This is my theory. The Bayverse is still “canon”, just moved to a separate timeline during which the Maximals and presumably the Terrorcons never time traveled.

 

Maybe I miswrote this point - if so, my apologies. The biggest red flag to me is the timing. This suspiciously-Kingdom-sounding leak that came out right after the Kingdom cartoon is either a) the biggest coincidence in the known universe or b) evidence that it's BS. And I know which one I'd pick.

Which is more likely - the production team on this movie were rip-off merchants with the power of precognition (the Kingdom cartoon didn't exist when they were brainstorming this movie) or whoever came up with this "leak" just copied the Kingdom cartoon and changed the names?