'Transformers: The Last Knight': Why Is Optimus Prime Fighting Bumblebee?
After watching the first trailer for Transformers: The Last Knight earlier this week, you probably have a lot of questions about what's going on. Hell, I was on the set of the movie this past summer and know some things Paramount Pictures wouldn't let us talk about and I still don't really know what's going on. But perhaps the biggest question from the trailer is why is Optimus Prime fighting Bumblebee?
Well, it just so happens that an explanation might lie in the mythology of the Transformers, but to discuss the possible explanations would dive into spoiler territory, so we'll leave that for after the jump.
ScreenRant assembled some possible explanations as to why Optimus Prime is fighting Bumblebee, seemingly reluctantly as he says "Forgive me," in the clip in question from the trailer. If you haven't watch the trailer just yet, here it is again for you to watch:
No matter the reasoning, it appears Optimus Prime is not entirely himself, and this could be for a multitude of reasons. One of them could potentially be inspired by Transformers: The Movie, the animated adaptation that saw the Autobot famously killed, terrorizing young Transformers fans for years. The death of Optimus Prime actually resulted in him coming back on the animated series as a zombie Autobot, which could easily be the case in Transformers: The Last Knight.
However, there are a couple other explanations that would prove to be more interesting because they involve some Transformers we haven't seen in the movies yet. One possibility is that Optimus Prime is acting under the influence of Unicron, a Transformer who is the size of a planet, destroying other planets and using them as fuel. You might remember seeing some shots of giant chunks of a planet in the Transformers: The Last Knight teaser trailer like this:
Plus, here's an image of Unicron compared to others trailer shots of some gaping, techno-style hole:
One of Unicron's abilities includes rebuilding dead or injured Transformers to become his servants. Could the pieces of debris in the sky be Unicron coming to Earth? Is he bringing an Optimus Prime with him that will do his bidding? It's certainly possible.
A similar scenario could play out with the Transformers known as Quintessons. They are said to be "The Creators" that Optimus Prime went to visit at the end of Transformers: Age of Extinction, and executive producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura confirmed to us that they will be appearing in The Last Knight. What if they end up destroying Optimus Prime when he comes to confront them and sends him back to Earth to destroy it as punishment? They have the same ability to rebuild and influence Transformers as Unicron so that's also a possibility.
No matter what the reason, that's easily the most compelling part of the Transformers: The Last Knight trailer. Even my time spent on visiting the set didn't afford me with any information that helps me answer this question, so I'm just as much in the dark as all of you.
We'll find out what Michael Bay has in store for us this time next summer on June 23, 2017.