Bumblebee was chock-full of
Transformers goodness, for fans of both the live-action movies and of the original animated series, but one iconic component of the franchise was surprisingly entirely absent from the film: Megatron. This villainous Decepticon is all but a main-staple of the series, you'd think, yet Travis Knight (the film's director) seemingly decided against including him within the most recent outing - or did he?
In a recent interview with
Entertainment Weekly, Knight revealed that he originally intended Megatron to be included in the film's opening sequence. This, of course, was the epic Cybertronian battle between many Autobots and Decepticons. Well, according to Knight, Megatron would've been slotted in right there, where he would've utterly dominated to his opposition.
“I had this whole thing that I boarded out myself where I had Megatron in there. He comes into the scene just absolutely levelling sh—, just laying waste to everything in his path like Sauron in The Lord of the Rings.” Knight then added that, while he was looking forward to the addition, he felt that it would've ignored the continuity of the previous instalments - that and it apparently would've cost a considerable amount.
We had a [new] design and a partial build and everything. I was so excited, I couldn’t wait to do it, but then as we started going through, it was going to be too expensive and really did fly in the face of continuity with the [Michael] Bay films. But let’s be honest, I’m sure they have a fleeting sense of continuity themselves.
[It] created issues for people who were unfamiliar with the franchise. I wanted to make sure this film was a tribute to the live-action films as well as the cartoon, that there were layers of enjoyment for fans of both.
Knight, however, was determined to feature the iconic character. Following his removal from the opening act, Knight planned to include a subtle nod to the Michael Bay-directed films in the background of a shot.
“We even caught a glimpse of him in the outside the war room, where the Sector 7 guys are wondering what they should do with these Decepticons. There were a couple shots were we just caught a fleeting glimpse of a frozen Megatron in the background.” This moment, unfortunately, didn't make the final cut either. Perhaps we'll get to see Megatron rocking his original look in
Bumblebee's planned sequel.
On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug.