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NEWS: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is 1st of Planned Film Trilogy

I love Beast Wars and I know Bumblebee was well liked compared to the others but I'd rather they just end the live action movies already.

2018's Bumblebee marked the beginning of this new era for the franchise, as Hailee Steinfeld starred in the lower-budgeted movie that retold and reinvented Bumblebee's origin story. The film was a solid success for the studio both critically and financially, even if Bumblebee was the lowest-grossing Transformers movie. Paramount is continuing this soft reboot with Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. The 2023 sequel is the seventh franchise installment as a whole and introduces new factions like the Maximals alongside new human characters played by Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback. Although Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is still a long way away, the studio has confirmed plans for two sequels, which already shows how they're learning from past mistakes.

One of the key issues that arose for the Transformers franchise in the post-LaBeouf movies was the lack of an overall plan. Even before it was clear that Michael Bay's movies were done, Paramount muddied the waters by having Transformers: The Last Knight and Bumblebee offer two completely different origins for the yellow Transformer. It left audiences confused about what story they needed to understand, which meant it was difficult to identify where the franchise's story was going and what the future held. In many cases, it seemed as though Paramount and Michael Bay were competing for control of the Transformers franchise future and making major decisions on the fly. Now, Paramount's decision to confirm Transformers 8 & 9 are happening shows that they have a plan in place for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts to be the start of a new trilogy of stories.

Eh, the only thing they did with Bumblebee was change the look. None of the story affected anything that happened in the Bay movies.

After he takes his new Camaro form and drives away from Charlie, Bumblebee is seen driving side-by-side with a red 1977 Freightliner semi-truck on the Golden Gate Bridge. This looks suspiciously like Optimus Prime in his Generation-1 design - and the mid-credits scene immediately confirms that it is the Autobot Leader when he and Bumblebee are next seen walking together in the forest. Both Autobots gaze up at the sight of seven more Autobots arriving in the sky.

Despite earlier creating a bridge to Michael Bay's Transformers via Bee becoming a Camaro, the fact that Optimus Prime and the Autobots have arrived on Earth in 1987 immediately contradicts Bay's canon - Transformers established that Optimus and the Autobots don't land on Earth until 2007. All of the Transformers are supposed to be searching the universe for the missing AllSpark cube (which is never mentioned in Bumblebee); it was only after learning that Sam Witwicky unwittingly possessed the map to the AllSpark that Bumblebee sent a signal to outer space alerting Optimus Prime and inviting the Autobots to Earth.