Transformers’ G.I. Joe crossover movie is firmly a Transformers sequel

Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura is a master of the roulette wheel. During a tenure as an executive at Warner Bros. Pictures, he snatched up the film rights to Harry Potter and threw an exorbitant budget at two indie filmmakers to make something called — checks notes — “The Matrix.” When he went independent in the 2000s, di Bonaventura lured none other than Michael Bay to take the long-gestating TransformersThe finish line is in sight. The producer still gambles on robots disguised as humans, 16 years later and after seven sequels.

“And it You can learn more about it here. a gamble,” di Bonaventura tells Polygon, as his new movie, Transformers Rise of the Beasts“, which continues to expand across theatres and digital platforms. “Every movie is a gamble and what you add or take away are gambles.”

Rise of the Beasts had its own gamble: While di Bonaventura says his team wanted to add the Maximals, the animal-like Autobots who took off in the ’90s Beast Wars cartoon, into the core franchise for years, they couldn’t crack a story that would actually work. “Naturally, animals and cars don’t mix,” he says. “They can’t go into an urban environment, they’d be a little obvious. There’s no robot in disguise for them in an urban environment.” The fix was a prequel-sequel, squeezed between the core Bay movies and the ’80s-set Bumblebee. that moved the action from New York to Peru and added an Indiana Jones-style twist.

It is a modest success. Bumblebee prompted di Bonaventura and Paramount Pictures to carefully weigh their follow-up play; it’s been five years since the Optimus-less one-off, and the yellow Autobot takes a bit of a backseat this time around. But the Transformers team isn’t waiting to take its next gamble on the franchise. This time it’s built right into the end of Rise of the Beasts, when the film’s human hero Noah (Anthony Ramos) is recruited by none other than the G.I. Joes, who want the Autobots’ help for… something.

Jonathan Wenk/Paramount Pictures

“[The G.I. Joe tease] is definitely a promise,” di Bonaventura says, when asked if the Easter egg is anything more than chum in the water. “I’ve had a lot of questions about this, and here’s my direct answer: We have not developed the script. So we don’t know exactly [how they fit in]But the answer to this question is the same as in all other movies, where a group consisting of both humans and robots battles the evil guy, saving the day. G.I. Joes will be part of that.”

G.I. They were very popular. You can also check out our other blog posts. around during the initial Transformers movies (although one could easily mistake Josh Duhamel’s Autobot-affiliated strike team NEST as an offshoot), which raises the question of how they will suddenly team up with the Transformers in a future movie. Di Bonaventura says don’t worry, the team behind the series actually does care about continuity. Notes from the producer Rise of the BeastsThe first Bay film is set in 2007 and takes place between 1994 and 2007. This gives the Joes 13 years to work together with the Autobots in secrecy.

“Continuity definitely matters,” di Bonaventura stresses, while likening his approach to how Peter Jackson adapted the Lord of the Rings books. As a Tolkien fan, there were certainly things he missed and characters he wanted to see — but the dramatic effect of the tweaks was everything. “For me personally, I think [continuity’s]Overblown because you can miss an amazing idea. […] I think one of the things that I find particularly exciting about this movie is, you get to meet Optimus before he’s the character you met in Bay’s films. There’s definitely an evolution between the two things. For me, that’s not in contradiction. You’re letting in Optimus’ emotionality, his vulnerability.”

The gamble of breaking continuity doesn’t always work out. Early encounters with Rise of the Beasts’ villains, the Terrorcons, Optimus Prime… gets his ass handed to him by their leader, Scourge. Not every Autobot makes it out alive, but when Optimus stands back up, he’s Livid. Optimus prime purists may be a little too angry.

“We had to dial it back a little bit,” di Bonaventura says. “When we first showed it to an audience, there was a scene that’s been removed from the movie because we just didn’t need it. Optimus’ anger over being caught was so violent, they were like, Whoa, that’s not Optimus Prime!It was. But it was. I think Optimus in some respects has the same problem as Superman, which is you’ve got to be careful if he just seems invulnerable because then how interesting can he be? So I really like that he gets his ass handed to him in the first fight, and that builds into the further fights.”

The mounting of a massive Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover event is not a threat to the delicate fabric of the TF Cinematic Universe. Joe crossover event should not threaten the delicate fabric of the TF Cinematic Universe — there is a long history of comics pairing the two teams that have paved a way for this moment. But di Bonaventura knows he’s still gambling. If I asked him how he imagined the crossover, he drew specific lines which people in charge of multi-billion dollar franchises would not agree with.

“They’ll be part of a Transformer group — we’re not going into the G.I. Joe world, they’re coming into ours,” the producer says. And as for the classic Joe characters established by movies like 2021’s Snake Eyes? “Characters should come in, I think.”

Just don’t expect Cobra Commander to hit Optimus Prime The same goes for the other way around. hard.