Rise of the Beasts Trailer is out

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

So if this movie has Unicron attacking Earth... it must mean that Paramount have finally decided to have the Bumblebee Movie universe be separate to the Bay Movie universe (because in the 5th movie "The Last Knight"), Unicron was the planet earth.

Or, they could link it together, with ROTB being set years before TLK and the defeat of Unicron requires him being imprisoned within the Earth for some reason. However that would mean the maw of Unicron would be a modern occurrence so it would've been discovered sooner that the events of TLK. Although these movies aren't very good with being aware of what happens in the other movies.

I hope its a separate thing thing though.

[griffin]

Or, they could link it together, with ROTB being set years before TLK and the defeat of Unicron requires him being imprisoned within the Earth for some reason. However that would mean the maw of Unicron would be a modern occurrence so it would've been discovered sooner that the events of TLK. Although these movies aren't very good with being aware of what happens in the other movies.

I hope its a separate thing thing though.

For those of us who were able to stay awake and endure the entire 5th film it was noted that Unicron's 6 horns were in locations that would have formed a ring during the time of Pangaea, which was 300 million years ago... meaning that he was the core of the planet from before the surface started breaking up and moving around.
(not that it made sense to me for his horns to be moving independent of each other as if they were detached from the rest of his body... if they were a ring around his "mouth", then they would stay together while the continents moved above them)

[Autocon]

Ez its all hocus pocus

I think BB movie is a different universe

[Tha_Phantom]

The lead producer says ROTB is not a reboot and specifically mentions it being a bridge toward the 2007 timeline.
People are welcome to point out the many plotholes with the other films and I'm sure they're right, but officially speaking this is not a reboot.
Don't forget, there are many inconsistencies within the original five films anyway.

https://www.seibertron.com/transform...er-arcs/47657/

[XMan]

Still going with soft reboot. But man looking forward to the humans exo suit thing

[griffin]

I don't see why they need to keep trying to work around the original movies.
It doesn't help with marketing at all, for Paramount or Hasbro.

As for the audience - most of us fans would prefer a fresh start after the mess of contradictions in the first six... while most of the non-fans who will see it won't care or shouldn't need to know a back-story to enjoy it.

[Cat]

I think their core audience probably wasn't even alive when the Bay movies were being done. These should be being aimed at the teenage/20's demographics, with nods to us older fans. Jettison the old continuity completely, start again with Bumblebee, and build up to Megatron. Do this well, develop your characters and you might be able to squeeze some sidestories, eg a Wreckers film, starring some of the guys from the Cybertron scene in Bumblebee, new characters, and someone well known, like say Arcee, for example. Or hell, even Bumblebee for the first one if you want to give it the best shot possible. Just something to prove the concept viable for the first film, and go wild after that.

[Tha_Phantom]

Official character bios have dropped and if you go to Unicron's one, it alludes to why he is different to what we saw in The Last Knight. Obviously, there are going to be some spoilers so read at your own risk.

https://news.tfw2005.com/2023/05/12/...-online-482884

[GoktimusPrime]

As Tets said, it could end with Unicron being imprisoned inside the Earth. As for continuity conflicts... mate... Bayformers alone doesn't even maintain its own continuity; this makes it jolly hard for any prequel or other expanded canon to keep canon! Movieverse canon is a lot like G1 Sunbow canon... it's a pretty loose thing.

Q: Did Megatron build the Constructicons or did the Constructicons build Megatron?
A: Yes.

Q: Were the Transformers made by the AllSpark Cube or by Seedy Creators or by Quintessa?
A: Yes.

Q: Did the Earth form around Unicron or was Unicron imprisoned inside the Earth?
A: Yes.

Honestly, Paramount made Bumblebee's place in canon ambiguous, and so far Rise of the Beasts' is ambiguous too, and I think this is a deliberate decision from the studio. Why? Risk aversion. On one hand, Paramount wants to break ties with Bayformers after The Last Knight's profits didn't meet expectations. But on the other hand, they still want to ride on the coattails of Bayformers' commercial success. They don't want to alienate the Bayformer fans but at the same time they want to draw in people who'd become sick of it. This is a very common issue with companies; they're risk adverse. It's why Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker was so... Rise of Skywalker! And TBH, I think Bumblebee came out a lot better than Rise of Skywalker! At least Bumblebee is rewatchable (I've not rewatched Rise of Skywalker since the one and only time I saw it in cinemas; I've hovered over it on my Disney+ menu but have yet to bring myself to click on it to view!).

And the Transformers franchise is no stranger to risk aversion, which can bring good or bad results depending on your POV. Risk aversion is the reason why:

• Generation 1 dragged on for so long (it probably should've been rebooted in 1990).

• Generation 2 was just G1 rebranded; unlike Beast Wars, it didn't really bring anything thematically fresh to the table

• Beast Wars has the "Transformers" logo in smaller text beneath the BW text, and early toys used Kenner's logo on the packaging, not Hasbro's.

• Early BW canon was just a direct continuation from G2. It was the cartoon that rebooted it as the sequel/prequel that we are more familiar with.

• Most TF series are Autobots vs Decepticons and are led by an Optimus vs Megatron. There are some exceptions, but they're uncommon. I love how RiD2015 was the one TF TV series that didn't feature Megatron, and it relegated Optimus Prime as second in command... every other show has an Optimus or Megatron in charge. Okay, also not Rescue Bots (although Optimus makes cameos and later more appearances).

• CHUG gives us very few new characters. I've seen people making negative comments about how Legacy Nemesis' robot mode is a new character.

• MP gives us few new characters; and when it does, they're usually an homage to something old, like Diaclone or Microman.

• Transformers Animated was a thing; Hasbro developed this as their Plan B in case the 2007 movie bombed. It's why Animated's style is the polar opposite from the photorealism of Bayformers.

• TF Prime was a hybridisation of Animated and Bayformers. And this has gone on to create the "evergreen" designs that we also see influencing series like RiD2015, Cyberverse and Earthspark.

Ultimately Hasbro knows that familiarity sells. And a big part of the issue is the audience. Just look at how some people react if they so much as tweak the designs of some characters in a way that looks unfamiliar to them (rUINed FoReVEr). And we wonder why studios are adverse to making bigger changes.

[griffin]

As Tets said, it could end with Unicron being imprisoned inside the Earth.

And as I had noted, this ROTB movie is set in the 1990s, and The Last Knight movie had shown that Unicron was inside the earth (or was the earth) since at least Pangaea, 300 million years ago, until the 2010s during TLK movie when his horns started appearing.
So unless ROTB shows Unicron in a flashback, it can't happen during the ROTB movie's "present day" of the 1990s.