With Star Wars trimming its canon for The Force Awakens, Brian challenges John and Don to do the same for Transformers. Brian would keep only G1 seasons one to three, Transformers: The Movie and Beast Wars. Don argues for Primus and Unicron as the origin over the Quintessons. All three want Optimus Prime fun again and clear heroes and villains. First, the crew reacts to Hasbro and Paramount’s new shared film universe.
Paramount and Hasbro announced a cross-property film universe built from several of Hasbro’s 1980s brands, with Micronauts among them. [Source: Hasbro] Don is cautiously optimistic. Brian calls it a bad idea that will fail, and argues a studio should make its Iron Man before its Avengers.
Trimming the Transformers Mythos
Brian notes Disney cut the Star Wars Expanded Universe and built on the original trilogy. Hasbro tried something similar with the Aligned continuity, which never caught on. He wants to edit what exists rather than start from scratch. John’s own exercise boiled Transformers down to Spike and Bumblebee, a boy and his car. He realized that is where Michael Bay started too.
Brian’s Cut: G1, the Movie and Beast Wars
Brian compares Transformers to Star Trek, where the public knows Kirk, Spock and Picard. His core canon is G1 seasons one to three, Transformers: The Movie and Beast Wars, and nothing else. That cut includes the comics and G2, even though he loves them. John adds that the best Transformers stories are Earth-based with smaller casts.
Quintessons or Primus?
Don loves Primus and Unicron as a mythic, god-level origin. He finds the Quintessons a mundane origin that complicates continuity, though they bring Optimus back. Brian prefers the Quintesson origin as easier to digest. John thinks most casual fans know the Quintesson version.
Optimus Prime Needs to Be Fun Again
Brian wants Optimus to be John Wayne again, a patriarch and friend who laughs. He rejects Prime’s Obi-Wan take and the movie version. John agrees Prime aimed for a distilled version but came off wooden. Don calls movie Optimus the Prime who never died at Autobot City.
Black Hats and White Hats
Don would cut Beast Machines. John argues ambiguity hurts Transformers, citing More Than Meets the Eye’s Autobot Megatron as hard to explain to casual fans. He wants the clear good-versus-evil the Autobot and Decepticon symbols promise. Brian and John agree the movies blur who to root for.
Reboot or Just Ignore?
Brian wants one cohesive universe where familiar characters can still turn up, like Star Trek’s later series. Don warns that taking Transformers off TV risks losing its spot. He would rather a new show explain its reboot on screen. Brian would simply start after Beast Wars and ignore everything else.
Contributors: John, Brian, Don
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