Bumblebee Almost Featured G1 Megatron

In an interview with io9, director Travis Knight revealed that in addition to featuring the G1 version of Optimus Prime and the fall of Cybertron, Bumblebee almost featured the G1 Megatron. Here are highlights:

On the setting of the film: “If we’re going to tell an origin story about a Transformer, it made sense we would set it in the era that the Transformers originated, the mid-’80s. Which is perfect for me because that’s when I was exposed to them. I was a child of that era and it was an opportunity to go back and draw some of these aspects of my childhood that really meant a lot to me.”

Knight on deciding on using the G1 appearances: “I think it was a little bit surprising for Paramount, for the producers, even for Hasbro on some level because they’ve been used to a certain aesthetic for the last decade. I didn’t think it was radical but it was seen as radical in certain places. And so it took a little bit of kind of coaxing through that process.”

Knight on a G1 version of Megatron not appearing because the Bumblebee film is a prequel to 2007’s Transformers movie: “I had this whole thing boarded where we’re where we see [Decepticon leader] Megatron and he comes in like Sauron, just blowing shit up and laying waste to everything. So even though I really wanted to see G1 Megatron on the battlefield at the fall of Cybertron, I couldn’t do it. But I wanted to fit as much of this G1 stuff I loved in there, and so I put my favorite characters in. Obviously there are ones I wish I could put in there, and I would love to see an entire movie about the fall of Cybertron because I think it’s awesome, but just to be able to visit it for a moment, to see the Cybertron of my imaginations on the big screen, it was a real thrill.”