I think it's more about toy sales, here. GI JOE, sad to say, is almost non-existent these days and Hasbro killed the last cartoon before the first season ended due to ROC toys clogging shelves and retailers wouldn't budge on stocking new GI JOE stuff. Given Sym-Bionic Titan got canned because of bullshit about boys not potentially wanting to buy girl characters (since the central character *was* a girl), then Thundercats got canned because of poor sales (because retailers didn't even stock the damn toys more often than not), GI JOE's poor sales undermining any attempts to resurect it is a major consideration.

Then, when it comes to the other side of the toy asile section, Hasbro's pushing its fashion girl dolls hard. The pony show spin off off "Equestria Girls" fashion dolls not only is the silver bullet Hasbro's wanted for years in order to meet Mattel's domination of that section of the toy asiles with Barbie and more recently Monster High, but has outstripped Mattel's sales, too. The Jem movie has been known for years - they even previewed toy package mockups at SDCC some time ago IIRC - so in all likleyhood, Hasbro's trying to go back to the basics with the flagging state of their IPs at the theatre at the same time they're resurecting one of their oldest toylines, further proven by how the second pony "film" pretty much invoked Jem and the Holograms in spirit with the whole "battle of the bands" theme.

 

Yep This.

 

I agree. They've killed off the four bad guys people were most looking forward to without really developing them decently. Much of the classic Autobot characters are dead, too. You just have Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and the Dinobots for classic, iconic characters now.

Unless this Cinematic Universe includes an origins movie and character spotlights for Ironhide, Ratchet, Jazz, Sideswipe, Starscream, Shockwave, and Soundwave, I doubt a cinematic universe will do the franchise any good, storytelling-wise. Unless something spectacular happens with the fifth movie, all that I'm interested in from this cinematic universe is more movie toys.

 

The character argument doesn't make sense to me. "They can't do a cinematic universe because to many characters have been killed off!" This is ridiculous, there are tons of characters out there they can use, or they can make up completely new ones. This isn't a G1 cinematic universe after all.

If they take this seriously and plan out what direction they want this to go, there's no reason why it couldn't work.

 

On the Autobot side I think they are in a little better shape. Over the G1 cartoon you had lots of Autobots that were given some sort of personality so there are still Autobots somebody loves that haven't been in the live action movies yet.

But on the Decepticon side yea things aren't looking as good. Too many G1 Decepticons were just thugs, goons, or minions for a more powerful more popular Decepticon. Really no point in having Skywarp or Thundercracker in the films if you don't have Starscream.

Plus with the number of times the Decepticons have easily been defeated it's really hard to pull out a Decepticon that can feel like a threat. If you can kill Devastator with just one shot then the Decepticons are just too easy to beat as film villains.

 

DOTM being virtually the same plot as "Megatron's Master Plan" could've fooled me.

And really, name one Decepticon from the G1 cartoon who had actual, in-depth character even in the most vaguest of senses...that isn't already dead.

Kruger fucking admitted he doesn't fully write out the scripts before moving on from the first draft.

Taking this series seriously and plan out their direction is literally the last thing on their minds. And has been for the past three films. After all, the way they left off with "The Creators" leaves the only known thing about them is that they exist. That means whatever Kruger decides to pull out of his ass for them later on can not be wrong because The Creators don't exist beyond being a stupid plot concept.

I mean, Pacific Rim kind of did the same shit, but Toro actually manned up and showed us what Precursors look like. Up close, even. You can't even tell what the hell that hand is attached to when it comes to Kruger's Creators.

That's no garuntee.

AoE Hound =/= G1 Hound in the slightest.

Technically, the true big bads of the past two films weren't even true Decepticons. Sentinel Prime's God complex extended to treating his alliance with Megatron and the 'Cons purely as something out of necessity (and murdering everybody in his way - even if it was all the other Autobots - was justifiable on those grounds). Lockdown isn't a Decepticon period, he's just a freelance merc bounty hunter who is sold as a Decepticon for the purposes of the toyline.

The Fallen was pretty much the closest thing to Robot God in the films...and Prime literally just curbstomps him AND Megatron simultaneously after we straps Jetfire's corpse on his back.

 

Just want to point out that a TFCU will be swim or sink not on the choice of Transformers but the team chosen to execute.

There currently doesn't exist the talent in the TF camp to pull off a TFCU. Marvel are trail blazing the path to success with 2 TV show (more on the way) and many many movies that either in a small or large way are connected.

Step one for a TFCU would assembling a team capable to executing such a grand vision. The goal is clear, aim for MCU levels of quality or don't both.

 

They really need to build up that "rogue's gallery" of villains, Decepticon and/or otherwise. As it stands, the only living villain of note is Galvatron, with the Creators as nothing more than a concept at this point in time that could turn out to be anything. Hence why there should be a few movies introducing new villains and NOT killing them off at the end.

 

There is no reason to have reoccurring villains or even good guys, as long as there have new ones to be the baddies.

You don't have to develop a character at all it doesn't really matter it's good and bad fighting you don't need to know why a robot that's fighting a war thinks about at night.

 

Not gonna happen. Especially with the universe thing announced.

Also they can still use Cyclonus and the sweeps as villains. Or what about bruticus. I bet you if they did Bruticus they could say "brawl" from the first movie isn't actually Brawl. I mean in TF1 they call him Devastator, they could just say he was a sub decepticon called devastator that happened to be a tank like brawl. Also we could have the stunticons.

And lastly the closest thing we have to Robot God in these movies is Optimus Prime NOT the Fallen. Optimus is virtually almost indestructable at this point. He is basically Jesus of Transformers also.

 

most of the marvel villians don't survive past their one movie.

Hell red skull one of the biggest marvel villains there is only got one movie

 

I guess THAT Reboot led to us getting Beast Wars, maybe another one wouldn't be so bad?


I think a "universe" for the TF films is an inevitability, as we've already seen, there's only so much ground they can tread with the same characters in subsequent films (especially when they don't do much to, you know, develop them), so it seems logical that they'd need to switch gears to spinoffs, prequels, and films that branch off into more tenuously connected directions, rather than being a closely linked narrative. Personally, I suspect this has been the idea since TF4 was announced, but now they're playing it up due to the spotlight on the Marvel and Star Wars (and to a much lesser extent, DC) cinematic universes.

 

The chances of the Dinobots getting their own movie seems really high honestly

 

This all comes down to the vision and execution. TF movies have had poor vision and sloppy execution especially when comparing them as a series.

Until this changes, a TFCU will crash and burn regardless of how many villains live or die.

 

Thats not stopping DC

 

It hasn't seemed to stop these movies from earning more and more money after everyone that hates them said they would never make another one after the first one.

 

Crash and burn? If the movies keep making the money they do, it's very unlikely that there will be any "crashing" or "burning", regardless of the quality of the movies themselves.

 

A cinematic universe might work, so long as Paramount and Hasbro don't try to ape Marvel without understanding why the MCU is working. Each franchise is its own beast and has to be handled as such.

In my unprofessional opinion, Age of Extinction left a decent seed for a potential cinematic universe: you have Bumblebee and the gang on Earth fighting Galvatron and other potential Decepticon arrivals, and you have Optimus hunting the creators in space, running into strange people and places during his journey. Paramount and Hasbro could create a set-up similar to what the IDW-verse did, splitting the Movieverse into two lines and resolving their plots independently of each other.

 

Money is one thing. McDonald's makes a lot of it but you wouldn't recommend it as a dining venue.

That's the current state of live action TF movies, they'd made plenty of money but aren't anything to brag about.

Now there is a chance to correct that.