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We had the pleasure to talk to the writer and artist of the new Transformers series from Skybound, Daniel Warren Johnson, to get to know more about what to expect in the coming months along with an explanation for the big spoiler moment. Below is a summary of what was discussed.
Firstly, it was interesting to see that while Johnson grew up with the Transformers brand and was heavily influence by Geoff Senior for his art style, he has been removed from the modern Transformers content and discussion. So don't expect new characters to show up, even those which have retroactively become part of "G1" fiction, like Drift, Barricade or Windblade. The stories will instead have characters he is ore familiar with, though there may certainly be some G1 deepcuts.
The first issue had a passing remark regarding Megatron's absence and Johnson was not going to tell us more about that. BUT he did explain to us why he picked Bumblebee as the character to bite the dust in the first issue. At a basic level, the scene was made to establish to both new readers and the human characters in the story who were the good guys and the bad guys and how ruthless the bad guys are. Plus, since this comic is meant to be as accessible as possible, Johnson wanted to have well known characters, including the one who dies. This had nothing to do with Bumblebee's overexposure in the past 15 years, though it is interesting to note that Johnson never had a great affinity to Bumblebee growing up.
While the book has a very familiar premise for anyone who grew up in the G1 era, the book is meant to be accessible to all and Johnson asks us to leave everything we know at the door. The story he will be telling is fresh and new. It will be written as a series of arcs, with no end planned at the moment. At the same time though, Johnson is adamant to make each issue feel satisfying in its own right, as we saw with the first issue, with a full character arc for Jetfire. This is something extremely important to him.
A change we felt was significant was the talk of time. In most Transformers fiction, eras are measured in "millions of years" be it the Cybertronian war or the time between the Arc crashing and the bots awakening. Johnson changed that to "hundreds of years" in the dialogue since it felt more logical, but the impact story wise is minimal. It wasn't that big a decision for him and Hasbro had no notes on it. Speaking of Hasbro's involvement, they did give him feedback about the way he draws Optimus' hands. While they would want them to look less human, Johnson is sticking to the Geoff Senior school of robot hands, which are simply human hands with some rings drawn on the fingers. It is also less taxing for him, since he does have the double duty of being the writer and artist.
Speaking of that double duty, it gives an added layer to what we see in the comic and which characters appear. For instance, the cassette Soundwave chooses to deploy is Ravage. Johnson, as a writer, wanted to include this character that he loves and Johnson as an artist really wanted him in the story because it adds a different kind of element to draw. Him being an animal makes him fun to draw and adds contrast to the more blocky shapes of the other bots.
Those were the main parts of the interview, if you want to watch the full interview, you can do so below. But please be aware of some issues with framerate and the interviewer going on some random rants/tangents.
Regardless of what you think of the Rise of the Beasts film, it shows that the director and writers did see the robots as the titular characters that they are rather than giant props in the background. Steven Caple Jr, the director was a fan of the source material and did good on his word to provide a Transformers movie with a focus on the Transformers as much as he could (we previously wrote why that's usually not the norm in these films). So it begs to reason why Wheeljack was such a change from his previous look, especially when he had a more accurate look in the Bumblebee movie. Well, it turns out that this decision and push was out of his hands according to this interview from UPROXX. From the interview below, we see that this more nerdy look came from the higher ups, be that Hasbro or Paramount (not that it matters, both companies must sign off on these decisions) and that Wheeljack's look was changed so that he can be more different from the rest of the cast, both in look and the personality inferred by the look. Also, we've gotten early designs of the film which show that Wheeljack's new design was done at a very preliminary stage of production, before Caple was even attached to the film. And it remained this way. Along with Wheeljack, ee have other "previs" designs to share with you from Fred Pashe, who also worked on Beast Machines back in the day. Enjoy!
"When I got into the film, they had already wanted the Wheeljack part of this picture, but they wanted to redesign it and actually lean more into the science and nerdy part of Wheeljack. They felt like the Wheeljack – I don’t know if this is the studio or Hasbro who was here before me – he was kind of falling into the lane of the other characters. Kind of tough. Ironhide, and those kind of vibes. Just didn’t feel like enough variety across the board. And so, for me as a fan, I was like, “All right, how can I keep some of the essence?” But I was like, I’m going to just dive deep into the lore and just gave him his whole sort of personality and a different look as we start to now develop and move on. But yeah, that was it. It was no shade or callbacks to the other Wheeljack at all. But people started calling Pablo Wheeljack, which I thought was kind of funny. And Cristo likes it too. He’s like, “I’m down for that.” Cristo Fernandez, who plays him, which is cool."
The Seibertron.com Twincast / Podcast is back again to talk about, you guessed it, Transformers. Join illustrious host ScottyP and his ramshackle band, xRotorstormx, EpicVoiceGuy, and Megatronus as we Wreck N Rule with the high octane energy of a snuggle of sloths. Plus, long-time Transformers comic writer Nick Roche joins at the start to talk about his latest comic!
Episode #300 “Last Pod Standing” is available directly and in our RSS Feed, and should appear on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio and many other Podcatcher sites within 24 to 48 hours of when you see this news post.
Here's what we discuss in this episode:
We kick things off with an interview with the one, the only, Nick Roche. Listen in to hear all about his latest Transformers work, Last Bot Standing
Post-interview, the rest of the crew chimes in on the full reveal of Masterpiece Trailbreaker, in all his everything-but-the-kitchen-sink glory.
Studio Series reveals are in, and we zero in on Arcee and Galvatron as the notable head scratchers and lowlights, respectively.
Now for something completely different: Lego Optimus Prime. Big, fully transformable, and expensive, the corporate synergy is strong with this one.
Bring on the Target exclusives: we briefly touch on the random assortment of WFC trilogy redecos thrown at Target consumers like so much chimken.
Mr.MicroMaster asks: "What if Hasbro is done with Transformers comics. While I highly doubt this is what Hasbro has in mind for the comics, non the less [sic] I think it will be an interesting thought experiment."
We wrap up with a round of bragging rights. But wait...
Our super special 300th episode topic: What is your 300th most favorite Transformer, and why? No seriously, we all pick something we really love, just... less... than approximately 299 other things in our collections.
|Love us? Hate us? Extra Super Love us? Drop us a review on Apple Podcasts or on your favorite podcatcher. |
| Want to keep the discussion going? You can do so by simply replying to this post! |
| Got a question for the Twincast? Ask the Twincast. |
There has been a lot of talks of reboots by fans, but the truth is Paramount can never commit to that. While the prequel movies like Bumblebee and the upcoming Rise of the Beasts won't directly reference the later (chronologically wise) films aside from Bumblebee's radio voice, face and alt mode choice, they are still part of this broader live action franchise, which has its die hard fans. Steve Caple Jr., the film's director, is very aware of this but and as a G1 fan he will be making this new movie his own thing while still being within the very loose and often contradictory chronology that fans call the Bayverse. The interview below from comicbook.com gives you a sense of how he will be meshing his movie within all this. It talks mainly of Optimus Prime's character and it is our best look yet at how Paramount is juggling this whole franchise and bringing in more classic G1 elements without committing to a full on reboot.
"The main hero is Optimus, as we all know and love," Caple said. "We're bringing Prime back, paying direct homage to Generation One. I care so much about this character that I really wanted to dive into Transformers, and I saw a Bumblebee and I was like, okay, Bumblebee had his own movie, but I want to discover more about Optimus Prime, dig underneath the surface, get underneath the metal, if you would, and like explore who he is and his experience here on earth, you know?"
"I know everyone has been asking like crazy, are we going, G1, are we going to G1?" Caple continued. "The answer is, yes, we are going to G1, the Prime."
The movie takes place about a decade before Michael Bay's Transformers -- and Caple plans to use that as an opportunity to explore a kind of "Year One" approach to Optimus Prime, and give fans a sense of how he became a great leader.
"It's 1994, and in a way, both the animated series and the Bay films treat Optimus the same in the sense of who he is as a leader, what is his drive?" Caple said. "All those things. What we've done is we're bringing it back to where you see how he becomes, what you're familiar with. And that's big new news."
And, yes, it isn't just a question of him spending 10 years on Earth. There's more to it than that, and fans will get to see what his "emotional" tie is to the planet, according to the director.
"When you say got to where he is, you mean 'we need to protect these earthlings and this biological planet,'" Caple explained. "The way to look at it is he's new to earth and he doesn't have a connection to earth the way we met him in the Bay films and the way we met him in the animated series where he's already a protector of Earth. And so in this film, it's forming, why does he have a link to humanity? And why does he have a link to earth? And that's emotional...At the beginning of Bumblebee, we showed, he escaped from Cybertron his home planet. And so in a sense, he's he literally is like an ex-pat here, right? He's landed. He's, he's an alien and he's never been here before. And so it allows us to get underneath say the stoicism of what we're traditionally presented in an Optimus."
Greetings Seibertronians! Fellow Seibertron user, EvasionModeBumblebee has informed us of a recent update to the Hasbro Pulse Unboxed blog! The update concerns an interview with one of the people responsible for the recent Studio Series Devastator combiner, toy engineer Mike B. He shares his thoughts on the process that created the behemoth that is Devastator, from initial planning to conception, to production. He also deals with the question of the time frame the toys were released in.
One of the more intriguing comments is made when asked about the size of the components and which size class they would be:
Mike B wrote:Last was the upper torso and lower torso. We actually thought of two options for this. (1) Scavenger being a Commander scale figure and Overload a Voyager or (2) Scavenger a Leader scale and Overload a Leader scale. We decided to proceed with option 2 of both Leader scales to fit in our existing scales, but more importantly for strength and stability. Having the lower torso as a Leader scale with more mass helped to improve the stability of Devastator.
This shows us that while Commander class has so far been only for WfC toys (Siege Jetfire and Earthrise Sky Lynx), we could still yet see the sizing in other lines.
Through out the blog is various pictures showing the design work that went into Devastator, but they served the best pictures and comments till last.
Working hard or hardly working?
The face you make when Devastator might actually have a good idea
When Devastator thinks he's all big
One of our more productive brainstorming sessions
Check out the rest of the blog for more information on Devastator!
What do you think of this bestial combiner? Have you made him up now? Let us know in the Energon Pub and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews!
That doesn't mean we're done with Siege stories, however. Seibertron is proud to exclusively bring to you an interview/Q&A with actor Shawn Hawkins, who voiced Mirage in the Siege cartoon! Read on to find out what he knew about Mirage prior to voicing him, how he feels about the Transformers fandom, and find out the 'bot he originally auditioned to voice before landing the role of the disappearing Autobot illusionist, Mirage!
Shawn Hawkins: Taylor! What a great surprise to wake up to this morning! Huge thank you to you and Ryan for having me on!
Taylor: It's our pleasure! So, Shawn, Tell us a little about yourself, your career, and how you came to voice acting. Is it a main focus of your career?
Shawn: Yeah so I’m originally from Upstate New York where I started in music. Ever since I was a kid I had a guitar in my hand and ended up playing in a few bands around New York. Then I went to college in Nashville, TN for music and business and ended up touring with some bands up and down the east coast. But at one point I just knew I wanted to get back in to acting. I had been a part of some theatre in high school but was interested in film and TV. So I ended up joining the theatre department at my college and then moving to Los Angeles right out of school. It was the best decision I ever made but it was definitely a big move. I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of some really fun and creative projects in my time here. A lot of indie film work and some television stuff as well, but voice acting was something I always wanted to do. I would make voices, probably just like everyone else as a kid but for me it continued and continued haha. I did some smaller (voiceover) stuff along the way but finally got this audition for Transformers WFC and I was sold. It was an absolute blast and I’m so thankful to have been a part of it. Sharing it all with the fans has been an incredible pleasure in my life!
Taylor: What was the audition process like for the Siege series? Did you read or audition just in general, or did you always know you'd be playing Mirage specifically?
Shawn: So I originally auditioned for the role of Bumblebee. We weren't told at the time what the project was. It had a code name and character code names but I knew reading it that it sounded a lot like Transformers. Of course, then I found out it was and that I was up for Bumblebee. Then after a few callbacks, they ended up giving me Mirage. And I am so incredibly thankful they did. I feel right at home with Mirage and I love his role in the series. As well as his role with the fans! I’m excited to share the next two seasons with you all and see what unfolds!
Taylor: How much did you know about Transformers before landing the role of Mirage? How much do you know now?
Shawn: Oh man! Well I grew up watching some G1 and saw all the Bay movies but I didn’t dive in until taking on Mirage. Now I’m learning things everyday. And it is mainly thanks to the fans! The Transformers community has been so welcoming and supportive. I am amazed at the interaction we get to have together. I wouldn’t trade it for the world and I look forward to many more meaningful interactions over the years. But yes, my capacity for Transformers material just keeps growing haha!
Taylor: How much interaction have you had with Transformers fans since the series aired? Were you a fan yourself before you got the role?
Shawn: Oh man! A ton!! I love it more than anything. Getting to meet all the fans and hear their stories. I actually pride myself on running a really interactive Instagram account where I connect with the fans on a daily basis, run giveaways and answer questions. If you’d love to connect, hit me up @shawn_hawkins. I was a fan before but not to the extent that I am now. It’s a whole new ball game!
Taylor: What did you know about the character of Mirage from the original cartoon series? Did you ever listen to the original voice actor to get a feel for his interpretation of the character?
Shawn: Well I knew he was the elite and also walked both sides of the fence. I knew that I was diving in deep because Mirage had such a unique voice in the original cartoon and I wanted to live up to that but also bring my own spin to it. Our sound engineer for WFC brought some great ideas and feedback to the table in a way that made me feel comfortable and confident with what I was bringing to set. For me I envisioned him sounding a little younger and I think the WFC team did as well. It was like watching this spunky rich kid who thought he knew more than everyone else but also sometimes.. he did. Haha! I loved it. And from what I’ve heard so far, the fans have been happy with the interpretation. I can’t ever predict that but I just brought my heart and soul to it and I always said, “There’s a reason I’m here on this mission... maybe this is it!!”
Taylor: What kind of direction were you given for the character? How is direction given for voice acting? Is the director in the studio with you when you record?
Shawn: Yeah so the direction was great. The VO director, Phil Bache, the engineer and the rest of the team had a really great idea of what they wanted already which made my job a lot easier. So we would go over individual lines and what they meant and I would just give a couple takes of each that were my interpretation of that. And we would go back and forth until we got something we were happy with. But yes, the director was always in the room and the guidance was top notch. I felt incredibly comfortable and free to play as well which is something you really appreciate as a voice actor.
Taylor: What's next for Mirage? Do you know if you'll be reprising him in the follow-up series to Siege?
Shawn: What’s next?! Well I’ve got some things on the plate. I don’t know what I’m allowed to say but I believe you’ll be seeing more Mirage in the near future! I am so stoked for the next two seasons to air and to celebrate with the fans. Other than that I’ve got a few smaller projects in the works and I’m also launching a Youtube channel for the Transformers fans and community. I’m incredibly excited to share that with you all. Be sure to check me out on Instagram @shawn_hawkins for when that drops and more cool Mirage stuff!
Taylor: What's next for you professionally?
Shawn: Professionally, I’m going to take a nice vacation haha. We have planned to go visit some family in Sedona Arizona here in October to just relax and reconnect. I keep myself pretty busy all the time so remembering to relax is important for me. But lots of cool things. I’m working on that Youtube channel and I also oversee a couple small businesses as well as audition regularly here in LA. There are a few films and shows on the horizon so I will have to keep you all posted! Thank you guys so much for having me and keep up the awesome work you’re doing at Seibertron! Such a pleasure to chat with you and connect with the fans.
And as for keeping connected with fans, Shawn has some exciting news for you, Seibertronians!
We wanted to do a special GIVEAWAY with everyone who keeps up with Seibertron. I will be giving away a signed Mirage figure from the WFC Netflix series to one lucky winner. If you’d like a shot at winning this you just have to follow Seiberton (Instagram @seibertroncom) and go over and give a follow to @shawn_hawkins. After you follow me, shoot me a DM with the word SEIBERTRON! So stoked to get to meet you guys and good luck with the giveaway! We will run this for two weeks from the date of posting. Much love to you all and thanks for letting me be a part of your world! )
Many thanks to Shawn for your time and talent, and willingness to share with us some fun insights into the world of a Transformers voice actor!
Rock audiophile site PureGrainAudio has landed an interview with Ricardo Hoyos who plays Tripp in the Bumblebee movie. It's an extensive interview that covers a wide range of topics including his auditions, growing up with Transformers toys, movie wardrobe, and being Canadian. He also talked about his experience with director Travis Knight which echoed our own Jon Bailey's impressions of him.
From that first audition that we did he made me feel so comfortable. […] Usually, at auditions, there’s something awkward about it, or you wish you did something differently. Just from that day and every day on set, he really not only did a great job of making us all feel comfortable, but also communicating with incredible efficiency. Like I could really understand what he was going for. He had a clear vision in mind. He just had that comfortability to know what’s going on and know that there’s this very good communication going on which made for a really nice time on set. He’s great, he’really great.
He also talked about some of Tripp's character development that ended up not making it into the movie.
Originally actually we deleted the scene where, in the end, I kind of disown that group of girls. When I’m like “You know what? I’ve seen the true side of you girls. Not cool.” But, yeah, that still is played upon, even though that scene didn’t make it into the final cut. That was definitely the attitude that they were going for. I associate with this group of people that maybe doesn’t jive with everything that I am about. Which I think is just like your classic kind of high school thing. We all kind of go through that where maybe people aren’t as nice as we want them to be in high school to others. But he’s a redeemable character. He sees through that. He’s not bullied like the other girls.
The entire interview can be read at the link above along with an audio version.
Now that the Bumblebee movie has hit home Director Travis Knight continues making the interview rounds. This time he spoke with MovieFone about some very specific topics.
On the topic of the cutting room floor:
We had this scene early on in the script. It was a “Sorcerer's Apprentice”-type moment where Bumblebee transfers his energon on to some of these appliances is in the house. We boarded it out and it was a lot of fun and but we never got it to work as a finished thing. It's one of those things where you share a work-in-progress with the world and you don't really want them to see it because I'm not done. But we did a fair amount of work on that sequence and in the end for a variety of reasons, for both tone and for pacing. While on its own, it was going to be a ton of fun, it just didn't propel the movie forward. It stopped the movie in his tracks for essentially this fun little moment and really wasn’t about our characters or their or their experiences, their growth or their relationship really.
On continuity:
Continuity is very important to me, as is being consistent. And so I did take a good hard look at the films that had been done in the past. And as we were thinking about this movie, I still wanted to move to be self-contained. I didn't presuppose any familiarity with the films or the franchise. I wanted someone who wouldn’t know anything about the Transformers to be able to sit in the theater to watch this movie and have a good time and enjoy the movie, not knowing anything about the transformers. But that said, it was important to me that if we were living within this universe and this mythology that it be consistent. At some point we realized that we were essentially boxing ourselves into a corner -- that we were, we were making choices that weren't really in the best interest of the film if we were trying to kind of sit within the overall mythology of the franchise.
Once I talked through some of these things with the producers and with the folks at Paramount, at some point we made the decision that this was the story that we're telling and we have to talk the best where we can. And if that means that we essentially are restarting the franchise and that means we’re rebooting these characters and they were taking aspects of the franchise and putting a different prism on it, then that's what we had to do. And ultimately it was a liberating choice because then we weren’t cornered into these decisions based on what had come before. We could tell our own story. And that that was the aspect of that.
On turning people into goo:
[laughs] Well, we wanted to showcase how much of a threat that our baddies and that if Charlie or Bumblebee some face-to -ace with these antagonists, they are in very big trouble. We wanted to show right away that these characters are a real threat. However in keeping with like you said, some kind of Joe Dante, family, Amblin-y vibe, you try not to be grotesque. We still wanted this to be a family movie. And so even though what the Decepticons do to people is horrific, there's still a comedic element to it. It’s still kind of fun, even though it's gross and awful. You can watch it and give you a little bit of a smile on the corner of your mouth. But that was the idea -- it wasn't horrific and grotesque, that that it was communicated what we want to but, in a family-friendly way. I will say that when we shot that stuff practically, people would get it all over their shoes. It was disgusting.
The full interview can be read at the link above and you can discuss it in the Energon Pub forums below!
We have a nice interview for you from Travis Knight, the director of Bumblebee, where he explains why Bumblebee and Charlie had to part ways at the end. He reinforces the stand alone nature of his Bumblebee movie.
The interview comes from Comicbook.com (who once again misses the mark with its headline, a trend with Transformers news).
“[The movie] had a beginning, it had a middle and an end and it had proper resolution. And so as I was charting the relationship between these two character there was no other way for it to end. It had to end with them parting.
It’s about one of those relationships, one of those life changing relationships that where someone comes into your orbit and fundamentally changes your trajectory moving forward. And it was, he has his mission to do and he has to go do it and she has her life and she has to live and she has to go live it. And they change each others lives, but then they had to part and that was the story that I was telling.
And so even though I love seeing them together, and I was sad when they had to part as well. It was critical for what this movie was.”
“I’m sure a creative mind could come up with a way to bring them back together, but it was always incredibly important to me that this film, even though it sits within a larger context of mythology and comics and cartoons and films, that this film be self contained that it lives on its own.”
There has been a lot of misinformation regarding the future of the Transformers film franchise and while people are quick to claim it is due to the film producer, director or "Hasbro" going back and forth, the real culprit seems to be misleading headlines in articles. Sometimes, in the hope of garnering views, an entertainment news site will opt for a very eye catching title but the problem is that many will simply look at the title and not read the article, which can quickly spread misinformation. This is happening a lot recently with Transformers movie news, like the time sites claimed "Hasbro" confirmed the Bumblebee film was a reboot. Sadly, anyone reading the articles would see that there was no quote from any Hasbro representative using the word "reboot" when describing Bumblebee. The sites didn't even care to name any specific individual credited to have said anything on the matter. It was just assumptions and people's interpretations that kept being passed on. Nothing concrete, unlike what any headline announced.
I mention all that because the community and news sites are at it again. Recently, Lorenzo di Bonaventura stated that there is currently a script being done for the next film in the Transformers live action franchise, one that would come after Transformers: The Last Knight. This prompted many sites to state that The last Knight was getting a sequel. While I can see the logic of that interpretation, all di Bonaventura said was that there would be another film, not that the specific storyline established in a previous film would be continued.
Basically, the next big Transformers film would come after The last Knight just like Age of Extinction came after Dark of the Moon. Set in the present, in the established live action universe, but with no real connection to past stories (which is par for the course in Transformers live action films when you think about it).
That is why when we are presented with the short interview below, where di Bonaventura answers "no" when asked by Slash Film if the next script picks up where The Last Knight left off, it fits perfectly well with all that was said. Not just by him, but by Brian Goldner, over a year ago at the 2018 Toy fair, when we were told that past stories would be dropped going forward and that a new team at Paramount was to oversee the future films.
So while we would love to be reporting you actual news, saying that the next big Transformers film will not be picking up elements from where the Last Knight left off is something we were told a long time ago.
We do have some other news though, in the same interview, di Bonaventura stated that Michael Bay would not be returning as director for upcoming Transformers films. However, this would also be par for the course as we have been told time and time again that Michael Bay was done with the franchise and yet he would still come back. Right now, all we know is that any upcoming Transformers film (either taking place in the past or present) is still at the scripting phase and there is no director attached.
Here is the latest quick interview:
For the next Transformers are you looking for new directors or hoping you can still make Michael Bay an offer?
I think Bay has made it really clear that he loved what he did and he’s not doing anymore. So I think the answer is we’re writing a script. At that point, once we get script we have a strong belief in, then we’ll begin to debate that. Michael’s made it really clear that he didn’t want to do it. I don’t blame him. He spent a hell of a lot, a decade of his life, shooting them.
Are you developing a script that picks up where The Last Knight left off?
No.
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