While I'm sure the idea of a Transformers Cinematic Universe could be cool, it faces a major flaw - unlike Marvel or DC, there's not a lot of instantly recognizable characters in Transformers, at least not enough to market an entire movie around (Marvel just got around to Doctor Strange because they showed anything they do can make money). Granted, you could argue that Star Wars doesn't either (at least not in the same way as Marvel, where they can get their own movie) - all the recognizable Star Wars characters show up in the main line movies. Rogue One featured almost entirely new characters (and in my opinion was better for it).

If Transformers wants this cinematic universe of theirs to work, they have to go the Rogue One approach. They really have to focus mainly on ideas and new settings to draw people in and expand the universe further. What could that be? Well, I have a few suggestions.

1. The Human/Decepticon alliance
Rewatching Dark of the Moon (which does NOT hold up as well as I thought it would) I realize that it has a lot of world building, but the way it's done feels almost accidental. Characters will spout off a line of dialogue that, when you think about it, has HUGE and long standing implications on the universe as a whole, chief among them being McDreamy's line about his father working with the Decepticons to make space travel too expensive to be feasible. This almost feels like a throwaway line to tie Dylan Gould to the Decepticons, but really think about it - it implies Decepticons have been dicking around on Earth since the fucking Kennedy era (not ignoring their interference in early mankind from ROTF - More on that later). This idea of Transformers being present in human history lends itself to a bevy of stories through different eras, one that could really highlight the "disguise" aspect of the robots in disguise.

2. Fixing the Plot Holes/Expanding on the events of ROTF
Before any of you fucking neckbeards come in and say "UHM AKSHULEE" - Revenge of the Fallen is a messy, poorly plotted movies. Even if EVERY single plot hole is explainable through some bullshit fan theory forum post, good movies shouldn't require that to have a basic understanding of their story. If only a Prime can kill the Fallen and Megatron killed Prime doesn't that mean Megatron is stronger than the Fallen? If an Allspark shard can revive a Transformer and Mikaela has that Allspark shard with her why doesn't she just revive Prime instead of Jetfire? Why can Jetfire teleport? If the Fallen can only be killed by a Prime, why didn't the 8 other Primes just gang up on him instead of suicide their bodies around the Matrix? How the fuck are Transformers still secret after Mission City and Shanghai? Why didn't Bumblebee warn Sam about Alice (more clearly than he fucking did) when he had the chance (or better yet try to kill the bitch when he had the chance)? And if the Decepticons have Pretenders, WHY DON'T THEY JUST FUCKING USE THEM MORE? If your first instinct is to come in and explain these, you're not only missing the goddamn point, but unable to accept that a movie (which I will admit I enjoy and have a lot of fun with even though I wouldn't say it's good) you like has plot holes.

Sorry for the mini rant, but like I was saying - future movies have barely touched upon the plot holes raised in Revenge of the Fallen, which is where I think spin off films can help. The writers room will have to work their asses off to fix some of the shit in this but I think they can write in even little scenes that help explain these holes. Plus some of the stuff in ROTF was cool and I kinda want to see them explore it a little more. Transformers vs Ancient Humans is cool, and the fact that Transformers in Ancient Egypt isn't a whole movie already is a crime.

3. What Happened To Mikaela?
While my personal theory is that Mikaela was killed by Cemetery Wind, we all know she bailed on the movies because of differences between Megan Fox and Bay. BUT...guess who's "supposedly" done after this (or at the very least probably won't direct the spin offs)? For all we know, Megan Fox might be beyond eager to work on a TF movie without Bay, and Mikaela was kind of a flat and boring character, but given the three movie absence (unless she's in The Last Knight somehow) that's PLENTY of time for a character to grow, especially when she's been hunted by Transformers. For all we know Mikaela's become the Bayverse equivalent to Circuit Breaker, hunting down and killing Decepticons and Autobots wherever she goes. Honestly I think Megan Fox isn't as bad an actor as everyone says - she's no Meryl Streep but she was fun in the Ninja Turtles movies, and Jennifer's Body is a masterpiece fuck what anyone says. Just don't ask for Shia to come back, cause he's more liable to write an entire diss track about Transformers.

4. NEST
Come on. Like you need an explanation for this one. Humans and Autobots working to fight Decepticons? Like that wouldn't be fucking AWESOME.

There's plenty more ideas but these are some of the ones that came to my head. What kind of spin off movies would you guys like to see?

 

Do you know what a plot hole is? Just because something doesn't make sense to you or is unexplained doesn't make it a pot hole.

 

Tying many points together from previous films is something the main films should do, and based on what is known so far it appears that TLK will attempt to do this.

Additionally, the whole idea of a spin-off is that it needs to feel different from the main films. Mikaela, NEST, ROTF, and the Decepticon/human alliance seem more like retreading old ground than good ideas for spin-offs in my opinion, although that doesn't mean NEST or Mikaela or a Decepticon-human partnership couldn't appear in a spin-off.

In my mind, ideas that could make interesting spin-offs that feel different from the main films include Beast Wars/Beast Machines, a Lockdown spin-off taking place before AOE with the bounty hunter as an anti-hero hunting some outlaw Decepticons or another threat, or potentially a film featuring the Dinobots and Mini-Dinobots. Perhaps the latter two examples could be connected or even be a part of the same film. A "beast" film would definitely be somewhat different. Having Lockdown as a protagonist could work because of his neutral status, badassery, and charisma, and a bounty hunter angle could be a great way to have films take place more off world. Finally, a Dinobot film could have both badass and comedic elements.

 

A film set between TF3 and TF4. Showing what happened to the other Autobots when the humans turned on them. The main bots would be Sideswipe, Dino and the Wreckers. Maybe even have Jolt back. Cameos from Bumblebee and Ratchet showing them go off into hiding. I'd have a twist at the end where not all of the Autobots are dead. Obviously Leadfoot is because we saw it in AOE(and there has to be some casualties). Other than Leadfoot there's not really any evidence that the other Autobots are dead. Only pictures of them on cards that Attinger had. Something simple could be worked out like the Autobots fake their deaths. Or they just get away. Then Attinger, not wanting the President to know he's failing, chooses to cover it up by saying they were killed.

A little silly I know. But it's something I'd like to see. And it would mean that the surviving Autobots could come back in future movies.

 

I would love to see a Dinobots spin off movie that deals with their adventures before the events of AOE. TO help make it different from the main films it can be done like a fantasy/folklore story where they hear pleas from another world to settle a problem like for example Shockwave before he arrived on Earth to not only give him more screentime and character but to also give a nod to the Dinobots and Shockwave's rivalry in the comics and in FOC.

 

Some of these can be explained.

1. The Fallen said only a priem can defeat him, doesnt mean that only a prime can kill a prime, so that means Prime can be killed by anybody, so that doesnt make Megatron stronger.

2. Its explained in the expanded material that seekers can teleport as their job is to find stars to harvest, so teleportation is part of the seekrs fuction. so the same can apply here

 

It's almost Christmas time, and when Hound's pole face was leaked I remember fans calling him "Santa Bot."

Having said that, and since Hound is one of my favorite movie characters, I would so be down for a Hound spin-off film that takes place during the holidays. It could be one of the most kick-ass holiday films of all time! The politically incorrect one liners and creative ways of killing bad guys would be Shrek-freaking-tacular!

Heck, maybe Hound is jolly old Saint Nick, or at least the Movieverse equivalent of it.

That could be f*cking awesome!

       

 

All the interesting new characters that are yet to come *fingers crossed*

 

that actually sounds really cool

i like the idea of mikaela being a rogue after ROTF, kinda like the wat she was in the titans UK comics.

i like the idea of igor trying to lead the remaining deceptcions, and the autobots trying to hunt them, and it would end with the ending of NEST and the autobots forced to scatter after cemetery winds first attack.

i would have also liked a solo movie of wheelie and brains on their own adventure

 

One about the Wreckers would probably be a hoot, though since they're dead that might be a bit of a hard sell.

 

I'd love one that focuses on a team of combiners. Be it Constructicons, Combaticons, Aerialbots, Stunticons, Breast Force (Liokaiser), etc.

 

Hound starring in a Die Hard-esque movie sounds awesome.

Other ideas include Drift playing tourist in Japan (since in my head the reason he looks like a samurai is that he's a huge weaboo), geeking out over stuff, realizing that it's not all fun times over there, meeting a human guide, and having running battles with Bludgeon.

Crosshairs could be the sidekick in both Drift and Hound's solo movies.

 

I'd like a spin off movie for each of the sequels! One that tells the story of how the transformers that appeared in each one came to be part of that particular story, probably have to be completely animated but the off world adventures of various autobots and decepticons as they try drastically to answer the calls of their leaders and come to their aid!

 

Dinobots, Megatron before he was Megatron, Optimus before he was Optimus, Predacons, Quintessons.

 

Personally I'd like to see something that has virtually no connection or parallel to the main narrative, such as it is, beyond it being Autobots vs. Decepticons on the same planet in the same universe - maybe involving some stolen KSI tech, but that's about it; it wouldn't even break my heart to NOT see any obligatory cameos by previous movie characters.
I'd prefer a cross-blending of elements of Marvel's "The Smelting Pool" and "Bridge To Nowhere" with Sunbow's "Make Tracks"; completely remove or otherwise severely downplay major plot elements of those stories the previous films have already used (like the Space Bridge); make the human subplot a caper story - with a variation of Raoul as the main human hero - and the robot subplot a vendetta story; and basically have the latter be Blaster and six other 'Bots - Red Alert, Tracks, Perceptor, Huffer, Pipes and Ramhorn - against Straxus, all essentially based at least visually on their TF Animated counterparts, duking it out in San Francisco (hell, I'd probably just have Nizzi 'moviefy' their existing TF Animated designs and throw in contemporary Earth-based alt-modes; for Blaster, toss the revised Allspark Almanac head onto his Binaltech Asterisk robot mode and work from there).
I would not be averse to a "Batman Begins"-style parallel-flashback storyline that gradually reveals over the course of the film WHY the robot subplot is a vendetta story *koff*Scrounge*koff*; nor, given the aforementioned stolen KSI tech, would I have a problem with human-in-exosuit-on-robot action; nor would I outright reject the love interest being an ex-girlfriend-turned-law-enforcement-agent who's tried desperately to get Pseudo-Raoul to straighten out because she still cares about him even if she might not readily admit it.

 

Hmmm TLK anyone  

 

I want a movie with the disappeared Autobots set between 3 and 4 ala Magnificent Seven. Like, they go on a mission to free Hound, Drift, and Crosshairs from the government and most of them end up making the ultimate sacrifice. No Prime, no Bee, it would be awesome.

 

I would like to see a spin-off based on the different beings Lockdown had on his ship. That could open up a whole 'nother realm of Transformers lore. Maybe even tie it into the Dinobots and how they fit into the whole scheme of things (Are they Transformers? Are they ancient Transformers? etc, etc)

 

And maybe they can explain in this movie where Sam and Mikeala went.

 

Reboot and start off without the stigma of a mess.
New characters are awesome. New takes on existing characters aren't so awesome.