Why Soundwave Was Left Out Of The 2007 Transformers Movie
There are few Transformers more famous than Soundwave and it's almost all thanks to the original cartoon. In that series, he was portrayed as more robotic than the other Decepticons; his voice (provided by Frank Welker and a vocoder effect) was electronic and his speech patterns were mechanical. Since Soundwave was less expressive than his castmates, he was less likely to indulge in the show's slapstick humor or suffer humiliation. These qualities added up to an air of coolness and mystery. On a show with paper-thin characters, Soundwave's lack of personality actually made him more memorable.
Since Soundwave has been part of "Transformers" from the beginning and is so well-remembered by fans, why was he excluded from the 2007 "Transformers" movie? He's in the sequels, but he's not a player you wait to take off the bench.
Well, his absence wasn't an oversight. "Transformers" writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman wanted to include Soundwave — he appears in early drafts — but they struggled to properly update the character. In fact, several of the Decepticons who do appear began life as an iteration of Soundwave.
Stuck in the 1980s
Most of the original Transformers turned into big vehicles like cars or jets. Soundwave was an exception; he transformed into a handheld cassette player. He was originally the toy "Cassette Man" from the Japanese toyline Micro-Change. Then, in 1984, Cassette Man and other Japanese robot toys were imported stateside by Hasbro to become "The Transformers."
Soundwave's character was crafted around his musical appearance. He was the Decepticons' communications officer and fought with sonic weapons (see the episode "Auto-Bop," where he opens a nightclub in NYC to hypnotize humans into slaves). His small alternate mode was also useful for the spycraft. In the pilot mini-series "More Than Meets The Eye," he sneaks into Autobot headquarters when Spike Witwicky discovers what seems to be an abandoned tape deck lying on the ground.
The cherry on top was that several other Decepticons transformed into cassettes — the avian Laserbeak, the panther-like Ravage, and the humanoid twins Rumble and Frenzy. In both the toys and accompanying cartoon, the cassette robots resided within Soundwave's chest and he could "eject" them into battle as needed.
This was a clever gimmick, especially for the toy. However, it created problems for Orci and Kurtzman. For one, cassette tapes had become obsolete by 2007. Second, while the cartoon didn't bother explaining how a 20-foot-tall robot shrunk down into a portable cassette player because kids wouldn't care, the film was aiming for "realism" (as much as you can with a franchise as silly as "Transformers").
Soundwave becomes Blackout and Frenzy
During the production through post-release of "Transformers," Roberto Orci was very communicative with fans on Internet message boards, answering questions and offering insight into how the story evolved across drafts.
According to one of Orci's posts, he and Kurtzman tried to make Soundwave into a helicopter. Producer Don Murphy suggested Hasbro wanted Soundwave's vehicle mode to be music-themed, though, so the helicopter was a no-go. Hence, the helicopter Decepticon was renamed, first "Vortex" and ultimately "Blackout."
Blackout's origins as Soundwave are reflected in the final film. For instance, Soundwave is often depicted as Megatron's stalwart right hand; in the film, Blackout is the only Decepticon to declare "All Hail Megatron!" after their leader is discovered. Blackout also has an animalistic minion, Scorponok — back when Blackout was Soundwave, Scorponok was going to be Ravage.
In another draft of the script from before Michael Bay was hired (confirmed as authentic by Orci), Soundwave infiltrates CIA headquarters disguised as a Boombox. Then, he scans a Humvee as his new alt-mode to escape and tracks down Sam Witwicky. He spars with Bumblebee and is ultimately defeated.
In the final film, this is split between two different characters. The human-sized Decepticon Frenzy stows away on Air Force One disguised as a stereo and then hacks the plan's computers. On the tarmac, he's picked up by Barricade, who hunts down Sam and then battles Bumblebee.
It seems that Orci and Kurtzman couldn't figure out how to incorporate Soundwave without size-changing. They had already conceived of a police car Decepticon, so they used that character (Barricade) to fill part of Soundwave's role. They also told Yahoo that they considered having Frenzy just be Soundwave, but due to the "contradictions," they decided not to "shove a square peg into a round hole."
Successful reimaginings
Soundwave ultimately shows up in "Revenge of the Fallen," the "Transformers" sequel and the last one penned by Orci and Kurtzman. In this film, Soundwave (voiced again by Welker) transforms into a satellite, remaining in Earth's orbit and monitoring communications. For the first chunk of the film, he puppeteers the revival of Megatron. His connection to Ravage is also reinvented; the panther Decepticon transforms into a missile that Soundwave can fire through the atmosphere onto Earth's surface.
In the third film, "Dark of the Moon," Soundwave has come to Earth and now transforms into a shiny new Mercedes-Benz. In keeping with his spymaster role, he poses as the new car owned by Sam's girlfriend Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) and has Laserbeak (Keith Szarabajka) act as his assassin. He meets an abrupt end in the third act, but the prequel/reboot "Bumblebee" brings him back and renders him identically to his classic self. Despite the cassette-player styling of Soundwave's appearance, the film dodges the size-shifting question by never showing him transforming.
The 2010 cartoon "Transformers: Prime" (developed in part by Orci and Kurtzman) features, for my money, the best modern update on Soundwave. He transformed into a Predator drone plane and thus his robot mode wasn't boxy, but slim and sharp (the drone's wings formed his arms, see here). His face was also a blank viewscreen, taking his classic visor to the next extreme. "Prime" Soundwave wasn't just taciturn, but completely silent; when he did choose to verbally communicate, it was via recordings of other characters (more than once, Soundwave literally threw Starscream's words in his face). This also makes Soundwave even scarier; the implication is that he's always listening.
Had Orci and Kurtzman come upon the idea earlier, I think "Prime" Soundwave could've been the perfect template to bring the character into live-action.