Michael Bay is a busy boy these days getting the new Transformers movie ready to go. Over on his blog he’s already got the front page set up with the Autobots and Decepticons symbols, along with a countdown clock to The Transformers release date. Cool!
In the blog itself, his last two posts have some interesting stuff:
1) The Transformers poster and teaser trailer will be released July 4th as we expected
2) Don’t believe anything you hear about “names” of the characters in the films. Bay says that only he, the COO of Hasbro toys and the Hasbro Chief Legal Council know the actual names of the characters, and that those names won’t be released to the public until the toy boxes are printed.
That’s all cool… but a BIG FLAG went up for me when I read that. Does this mean that there is a chance that Bay will change the names of some of the actual Transformers characters?!?! It probably doesn’t mean that at all, and I’m just reading into it.
But if it DOES mean he’s considering changing the names of some of the characters… get ready for a holy war. If Optimus Prime is suddenly named “Truck Boss Supreme” I swear I’m going to fucking lose it on someone.
Big thanks out to Larry for pointing me to this story.
“Truck Boss Supreme”… LMAO!!!
I totally expect them to change the names. Of course some of the core characters (Megatron, Starscream, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee) will not change, but there will be hordes of other names and new characters to launch an new toy line.
This has been a staple of the TF franchise. The TV show introduced new characters all the time just to feed the overly successful toy line.
This will also spawn yet another “world” in the Franchise that will be separate from the previous incarnations.
To sell toys.
HAHAHA, I was expecting someone to do that on X3, XD. Alas, that honor went to Superman and his different style costume (I have no problem with it; I’m betting someone will have something to say about that).
As much as I’d like to see the name “Optimus Prime” make it in the movie, certain changes on the film’s story may be necessary to attract more audience members to view this (as Campea said in the Audio Blog). HOWEVER, if Michael Bay changes the names, there WILL be some angry comments heading his way!
i started an online petition- those that care, sign and comment, its just a start to a much bigger movement
http://www.petitiononline.com/qd1d7319/petition.html
If Primes name is changed then you can expect an uproar BUT I seriously dout that such a popular character name would be changed. Changing Primes name would be like changing Wolverine’s to little pissed off hairy man.
Yeah, I was going to say what Naladaho said – I dont think its the character names that are practically a trademark (e.g. Optimus Prime!). However, I can easily see a few more “extra” characters involved in this movie…eeek…
There are so many possible dissapointments awaiting us next year with regards to this film. We’re holding our breath in undisguised optimism and there is still so long to wait. I can’t remember the last time I had this level of anticipation for a film.
Much like in X2 where them getting Colossus right totally made the film for me I would want just a few things done right by Bay for me to forgive a multitude of sins:
A – Optimus. Make him the same colours and keep the rough mask shape. Also give him a drawl so occassionally he sounds like John Wayne (anyone else notice that in the early cartoon years?).
B – In the cybertron scene, any footage – MINISCULE footage – of Omega Supreme.
and finally
C – Have some KICK ASS Autobot / Decepticon symbols segwaying into one another. I don’t care if it alters the pace of the film – it would be FUCKING AWESOME.
:)
I’m pretty sure it has to do with Hasbro’s getting proper trademark use for the future toys to be released for the film.
This entire film is driven by Hasbro’s need to have a concurrent toyline with it and over the past 20 years they have lost the names to many characters.
In fact, the lost the name to Bumblebee, one of the most popular and well-known characters from the 1984-1986 cartoons. I think they recently were able to reacquire it but Volkswagon won’t let them use the modern (or the actual old) Beetle appearance so that character may be something else.