Y’know, there’s this lovely little thing called a “headcanon” 
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Because nothing they’ve done so far has created confusion, of course.
Again-this just comes off as a cop-out.
Those were merely rumors. If they had just came out and said, “We’re reworking this movie into a reboot,” instead of leaving it ambiguous, then there would’ve been zero confusion. Considering a good deal of Bayverse fans were fine with Paramount/Hasbro claiming BB was a reboot AFTER it was released, surely they would’ve accepted the change while it was still in production.
And just because a studio isn’t entitled to do something, doesn’t mean they can’t. I remember when The Amazing Spider-Man movies were canned, and the studio released a statement admitting that what they were doing with the character wasn’t working, and that they were doing what was best for everyone. As a result, everybody was happy.
Your point here is…
Then perhaps I should rethink my college and career plan…
LOL. Star Wars fans get backlash no matter what side they’re on.
I guess so…
No. Nothing related of Bumblebee so far created confusion.
Here’s a thing: nobody uses this as an excuse, but as a geniuen reason as of why the minority didn’t got what it wants.
Again: they don’t own us anything.
And nowadays the level of confusion is also zero.
Did they do that several months before the release of the movie, like you wish they did with Bumblebee?
That you seem to be the only one thinking that they “screwed things up”. They didn’t screwed anything up, they created a brand new universe with a boom and silently ended of the Bayverse. It’s just business.
Or just don’t completely disregard the context behind their arguments.
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Except the whole prequel vs. reboot controversy, of course.
It also serves as a way to alienate that minority.
This is the one good thing that I’ve gotten out of Hasbro claiming BB is a reboot: nobody is debating whether it’s a prequel or a reboot anymore.
The simple answer is “yes.” In 2015, Sony was reeling from the (perceived) failure of TASM2, and then along came Marvel with their offer to include Spider-Man in their cinematic universe. So Sony made a deal with them, then explained things to the fans pronto. People were happy about Spider-Man being in the MCU, of course, but this just goes to show that the studio being open with the fans equals good. On the other hand, leaving people in the dark just leads to confusion and contention.
I meant what I said as a joking response, hence the emoji.
Maybe “screwed up” isn’t the right way to word it. Like I said before, Bumblebee could not have done anything to patch up the cliffhanger that TLK left. But the fact that Hasbro continued to tease Bumblebee as a prequel even with all the reboot rumors, and then later claimed it was a reboot, just feels wrong. If you want to create a brand-new universe, then just say it. Don’t leave it ambiguous and then declare it after you’ve released the movie.
Which by now completely died off. Everybody knows that Bumblebee is a new universe.
The minority which, especially in this context, when everybody except for a few “hardcore fans” accept and like the reality.
The minority, especially one that small, obeys to the majority.
Uhm… Yeah.
Nnnno. From what you just told me the simple answer was no.
I got that, but I wasn’t joking.
They teased it till a point, till the start of it’s production, before going silent about it, and before teasing that it was a prequel. Which means that from the very beginning they weren’t 100% sure how much they want to make it a prequel instead of a reboot.
It really doesn’t. It feels wholesome and right. It would have felt wrong if Bumblebee wasn’t a reboot.
Once again: they don’t own us anything. Their financial choices are theirs and theirs only till they release the product. We have no right to tell them “you should have told us” because we are just the consumer, and the company >>>>>>>>> the consumer.
Not to mention that, at the end of the day, it isn’t even all that much of Hasbro’s fault, but of Paramount’s.
They declared what everybody wanted to hear.
Hey @thewimpykid I clear some things out, first TFWiki isn’t a official Transformers Wiki, second Bumblebee is just a mixed of a half of prequel and a half of reboot, third is Bumblebee is also a solo movie with some addition Transformers characters in it, with some new guys, and changes from previous media.
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I think what people fail to realise in hindsight is that Bumblebee was a bit of a risk. It was a small movie, sure, but it was taking the transformers film franchise in a direction which it never had before. A small family holiday season movie as opposed to a big loud summer blockbuster. Paramount wasn’t sure whether or not it would be financially viable. Paramount was already changing course after TLK bombed, but they didn’t know if Bumblebee would be successful either. If it did fail, they could just stay with it being a prequel and toss it on the sinking ship of the Bayverse. If it was successful, they could call it a reboot and cash in on the good press for their transformers films going forward. Which is exactly what they did.
From a business perspective, this is perfectly logical, and I really don’t see what the problem is.
Maybe I’m just less insulted, because I always felt like these movies were only trying to maximise profit anyway.
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Right, sorry. I forgot that I’m supposed to always be 100% on board with what everyone else thinks.
This isn’t really about the issue, but what are those asterisks in the quoted text supposed to represent? I assume you’re meaning to say “hardcore fans,” so…
What do you mean? What I said was, Sony and Marvel had came to a decision, so they came right out and said that they had came to a decision, rather than leaving fans in the dark for a while.
I’ve tried my best to explain why I feel this is wrong in every post I’ve made on this topic. I mean, for the reasons that have been presented to me, Bumblebee can work as a reboot. But the way Hasbro and Paramount didn’t declare Bumblebee a reboot until AFTER it was released is what makes it feel wrong to me.
Try saying that to Star Wars fans these days…
But seriously, though. Just because the company ultimately has more control over the product, doesn’t mean the consumer can’t feel disappointed/betrayed/offended by the product. If you like the direction that Hasbro and Paramount is taking, good for you. I still don’t like that they’re trying to make us pretend that the Bayverse didn’t happen, but we all have our own point of view.
What on Earth are you talking about? They’re not talking about it because there’s nothing to talk about. You could make this exact same argument towards the cancellation of any franchise. They’re just changing direction because things didn’t work out. I’m sorry, but that’s life. You can’t expect them to keep sucking up to a minority of fans because they might offend them by being cautious with their business decisions.
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I haven’t said that. I said that Hasbro would not sacrifice such a big majority for a few people.
I wanted to bold the "s.
I asked you if Sony came out and said “look guys, we are cancelling this franchise that the movie we will release a few months from now is part of”, just like you wanted Hasbro to say “look guys, we are rebooting this franchise that the movie we will release a few months from now is part of”.
Instead you told me the story of the Sony/Marvel deal.
And I debunked almost all of the ones thrown at me.
This is capitalism.
This is the market.
This is the industry.
Deal with it.
We are not talking about Star Wars here.
If you feel that, it’s OK. Just don’t expect others to share your opinion. All of these responds that I gave you were not to change your opinion, but to present mine and the majority’s.
They are definitely not doing that.
And in turn offending the majority for not carrying about them.
THNX. That makes sense.
I meant to use it as an example of how, when a studio is open with the fans and not leaving them in the dark, then that’s beneficial for everyone.
This was another joke. I was referring to how a LOT of butthurt Star Wars fans are yelling at Disney to wipe the sequel trilogy from canon and hire Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau to do the sequel trilogy over again.
Big shock, they’ve accomplished nothing.
Like I said before, I’m not entirely against rebooting the franchise. I’ll still miss the Bayverse, but it’s possible that the 2021 movie reboot might be good in its own right. I know I’ve came across as really negative about it in the last few posts, but it’s really only Bumblebee that has me worked up. The new movie is what I feel more open-minded about.
The fact that Studio Series is a thing and looks like it’ll continue to be for some time seems to prove that they’re not…
Hasbro isn’t anyway, and that’s really what matters since all Paramount has cared about is making money.
^^^
This.
Especially since it was really clear from the moment the film released and even before that it was a reboot considering outside of obvious visual things connecting the two films, there’s no way Bumblebee can be a prequel given the contradictions in plot.
However, no one is saying you personally can’t think of Bumblebee as part of the Bayverse while also being the start of something new. I actually fall into this camp to some extent. The finished film we were presented with means it doesn’t make much sense belonging in that universe, but ironically that’s a better send off for it than TLK was considering the continuity mess that it was.
The fact that it did start life as a prequel means it can one hundred percent work as a prequel to the others in a rewatch marathon as long as you turn off your brain. Just another chapter in the beautiful mess that was the Bayverse. At the same time, it’s also a film that isn’t connected to any previous film and is the start of a new continuity. Just remember this going into The Bumblebee & Optimus Roadtrip Movie that from Hasbro and Paramount’s perspective, it’s a new universe that doesn’t connect because it’ll make more money that way.
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Can we just stop arguing? The transformers fans finally got a good movie since G1 and the bay fans can just pretend bumblebee is a prequel. It’s not like the bay movies had a coherent plot to begin with.
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This is the explanation I like the most.
It is unfortunate that that is the only thing anyone in Hollywood cares about. No matter how anyone feels about what the studio does, they’re ultimately only interested in the $$$.
It’s interesting that Hasbro has been trying their hardest to convince people that BB isn’t part of the Bayverse, and yet they still include BB along with the Bayverse in their Studio Series. But TBH, I don’t really care, because 1.) it gives me an excuse to call BB a prequel, and 2.) from the pictures I’ve seen, the Studio Series toys are consistently well-crafted, with some exceptions. I do not own any of them, as most of the money I spend on novelty items goes to Lego, but in the future, there is a possibility that I will get one or two Studio Series figures.
Oh yeah, and I forgot about 3.). Hasbro can make more $$$ if they sell toys based on the BB movie, especially when those toys are actually good. Seriously, what was up with those Energon Chargers/Sparkers/whatever those were called that they released in the toyline for the Bumblebee movie?
A little. But ultimately it’s a business. That’s just how this works.
I like to think of Bumblebee as being both, personally. If you go with the whole ‘bee went back to Cybertron for a little while after WWII’ it doesn’t contradict things in the bay movies anymore than they’ve already contradicted each other :V
Plus there’s Sector 7 and Simmons, and the beautiful irony of this meaning Shatter and Dropkick were near the missing Megatron without even realizing. XD
At the same time, speaking as someone who also enjoyed the Bayverse at least a little bit*, I do also think Bumblebee is the perfect launching point and direction ■■■■■ for a new, hopefully better, continuity, so I’m looking forward to whatever comes next. The nice thing about BB’s ambiguous status and being relatively self-contained nature is that it can work as both; who can say the same set of events can’t wind up happening even in two otherwise very different universes? And the beauty of Transformers is that as a franchise it’s already got a half-dozen different main timelines and a gazillion mutually-exclusive spinoffs from each, so this is far from an unprecedented idea here.
*(07 and DotM at least I’d classify as Guilty Pleasures, and I actually had fun with how much of a hot mess TLK wound up being, even if I don’t care much for RotF or AoE)
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Right now I’m in the middle of rewatching the six movies in the live-action continuity. What someone said before about using Bumblebee in a marathon of the Bayverse gave me a desire to do that. So I’ve started doing it. So far, I’ve already watched Bumblebee and TF1, and have yet to get to the next four movies. But so far, it’s worked out okay. Bumblebee actually doesn’t contradict the plots of the Bayverse movies as much as some would have you believe, and when it does contradict them, well, like I said before, it’s not totally out of character for the franchise.
Although, the feel of Bumblebee is a little different. This I can forgive because it’s a different director. Plus, it has similar elements to the Bayverse, in that a human is the main character, with the robot taking a side role. And Bumblebee’s design in the movie would fit within a Bayverse robot lineup, to say nothing of Shatter and Dropkick. As for the Cybertronian characters having G1 designs…that’s hard to say. I always assumed that it was a product of a different director who was doing things his own way just because, but there are rumors that indicate it was borne of Hasbro’s “reboot” mentality. Even though the G1 designs don’t suit the Bayverse, the CGI is still nice.
But of course, there’s still the upcoming movie set in the 1990s. That’s obviously gonna be its own universe, building off of Bumblebee. Like I said before, the Transformers wiki (rightfully) still lists Bumblebee as a prequel, so I can’t help wondering what it’ll have to say about Transformers 1990 (or whatever they end up calling it). Most likely scenario is, they’ll just write something along the lines of, “The movie acts as a follow-up to Bumblebee, ignoring the events of the previous five movies.”
Really, I don’t see the problem with us just saying Bumblebee is both a prequel and a reboot at the same time. Hasbro’s probably trying to avoid creating further confusion, but what irks me is that they’ve gotten many people to think that Bumblebee is a reboot. It seems like everywhere I say that I still view Bumblebee as a prequel, someone goes, “It’S a rEbOOt, sToP CalLiNG It A pReQuEl!” To which I just throw up my hands and sigh.
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You’re gonna have a grand old time when you get to the Last Knight then
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TLK is arguably the most nostalgic for me. In my Junior year, the first trailer dropped, and from there I was riding on the hype train. I was watching virtually every video from The Road To TF5 that Alex Yu of TheRaginNation on YouTube churned out, and I was following tons of fanpages on Instagram. I was so excited to see how Drift, Onslaught, Barricade, Dragonstorm, Quintessa, Megatron, Nemesis Prime, and all the other awesome robots were gonna be used in the movie. And then when the movie came out, I found enjoyment in it. Even though it wasn’t the masterpiece that some people anticipated, it’s still fun. It’s a shame that they cancelled TF6…
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wait, did somebody actually anticipated TLK to be a masterpiece?
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