Select Page
Transformers bumblebee trailer jeep robot

“Sweet boy”

The first non-sequential entry into the Transformers film franchise finally dropped a trailer to the chagrin of Transfans across the globe. At around 2:00 AM CST on Tuesday June 5th, 2018, the world breathed a sigh of relief, shed some tears, and history was made. The collective internet at large unanimously agreed the trailer was good, and not the train wreck everyone was expecting after the previous entries into this movie franchise.

Transformers Bumblebee trailer honeycomb bees

Sweet

It’s not just fans taking to social media in bee swarms, it’s the regular press too.  With headlines like “Bumblebee Movie Shows The True Potential of a transformers movie” and “Is It Weird That the Bumblebee Trailer Made Me Tear Up a Little Bit?“, it’s clear that something no one expected is gaining steam. The only person that should be ashamed of this complete 180 is director Michael Bay who has spent the last 10 years brushing off the criticism of his work with the arrogance of a school yard bully. Now that we have an actual creative story-teller in the director’s chair instead of a dime-a-dozen commercial director that some how got a big break where 100’s didn’t, the world can finally be treated to the wonder and bewilderment that thousands of Transformers fans already knew the brand possessed.

Oh, and Ryan Roschke, the answer is no, no it’s not weird. I’ll admit that I too teared up (although I really blame the excellent musical direction of the trailer) when I watched this trailer for the first time in the early morning hours of Tuesday. It was as if for the first time since early 2006 that all the abuse I had withstood, all the disappointment, all the ridicule had been worth it and was finally over. I, no we, had persevered and miraculously been rewarded. We just never expected our savior to be Bumblebee.

transformers bumblebee trailer autobot insignia face

Non-angry-eyes Autobots are back in style!

I have to applaud the team at Hasbro and the cohesive vision of Travis Knight for being patient and not jumping the gun to share this film. Originally the Bumblebee movie was supposed to have been released during this current Summer’s blockbuster season, like every other Transformers film, but all that changed when Solo: A Star Wars Story, flipped the script and moved from a Christmas release to a summer release. Thanks Disney, you opened the door for success; a mistake they are not likely to make again. This, of course, has wrecked havoc upon Hasbro’s toy release schedule, creating a rarely seen dry-spell for new product moving into the summer months. The Bumblebee Movie toyline was meant to drop along side the current Movie Studio Series line, but plans had to change when the Transformers movie franchise was cancelled and Bumblebee was pushed back almost 6 months. This has also caused a real problem with distribution of Power of the Primes wave 2 and 3.  Oops. Well, it’s nice to see that the struggle was worth it.

transformers bumblebee trailer face

Nerds rejoice: robot kibble is now canon!

So amongst all this excitement for the trailer is a whole bucket of confusion. The confusion stems from the terms “reboot” being thrown around haphazardly by official sources. Here are the facts:

  • The Transformers Movie franchise has been cancelled since Transformers 7 is no longer on Paramount’s release schedule.
  • The Bumblebee movie was originally considered Transformers 6. It was and still is set in the only Transformers movie universe that exists since the entire thing was written and produced under the context of it fitting in this universe.
  • The setting of the Bumblebee movie is the 1980’s, which now according to the chronology of the films sets it between the time when Bumblebee fought in World War II (The Last Knight) and when Bumblebee first interacts with Sam Witwicky (Transformers).
  • The last time the Transformers film officials used the word reboot, they had a fundamental lack of understanding what that word fucking means. So just forget that word exists in the context of the Transformers films right now.

The Transformers universe is going to get rebooted… at some point.  This is why a new film is not on the books until 2020+. Giving potential new creators this much time to let Transformers simmer on the general public seems like a really great way to give some breathing room to the franchise. Hasbro’s teams will be able to work with movie production creative teams a bit more closely and in a timely matter. Toylines that are successful take a lot more time than anyone thinks. The real wrench in the plan right now is this Bumblebee movie. It’s looking to me like it is going to destroy expectations and probably have one of the best opening weekends of all the Transformers films. If that prediction is true, I fear for what this means to Paramount & Hasbro’s best laid plans. If anything, I pray that they stick to their guns and use this Bumblebee film as an example of how to do it right as they move into a new paradigm for Transformers film-making and story-telling. My biggest fear is that this movie does so gang-busters that everyone up top can’t bear to let the franchise go and will suddenly fire up the Transformers 7 machine, and Bay will be back in the driver’s seat.  He still has an executive producer credit attached to this film so his ego has melted into a puddle just yet.

transformers bumblebee trailer Hailee

I give it a ten!

Let’s also not forget about the star power in this movie. John Cena is in everything now, and he draws a crowd! Just look at Froggy Fresh spit sick rhymes about his favorite wrestler years ago. His fame has only gone even more bonkers since. Then there’s God’s gift to the world, Hailee Steinfeld. This girl does not quit. She can sing, she can act, and she’s generally the #1 girl next door on planet Earth. If Megan Fox is the kind of woman you cheat on your wife with, Hailee is the type of girl you cheat off her tests in math class. She’s an A+ student and this movie is going to propel her to super stardom so she can rub elbows with the ‘it’ girl of yesteryear like Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence.

Transformers bumblebee trailer starscream animated GIF

The flyboy we’ve all been waiting for

Oh, and of course we can’t forget this guy. Bumblebee wasn’t the only A-list Transformer scouring Earth for the All Spark, oh no. Starscream has been holding it down just as long and we’re finally seeing him before his couch potato days as a Dorito. God speed you vain, scrupulous seeker you. It’s amazing to have you back. Where’s that box of kleenex again?

Watch the trailer in full below, or click here.