[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers forTransformers: Rise of the Beasts]WithTransformers: Rise of the Beastsrolling out anew iteration of the Autobotsinto theaters, all fans can talk about is how the movie promises an exciting crossover with theG.I. Joefranchise. However, as producerLorenzo di Bonaventurareveals, that surprising cameo almost didn’t happen. In fact, during an interview with Collider’sSteven Weintraub, di Bonaventura said theG.I. Joescene was initially intended to feature Sector Seven.
In theTransformersmythology, Sector Seven is a department funded by the U.S. government to surveil possible extraterrestrial threats and protect Earth from outer space attacks. The agency was featured inMichael Bay’s firstTransformersmovie and in 2018’sBumblebee, the latest soft reboot for the franchise that is directly referenced inTransformers: Rise of the Beasts. So, when the time came to reveal a secret organization was aware of the battle against Unicron (voiced byColman Domingo), Sector Seven was the most obvious canon element forRise of the Beaststo use. That is why, until the very last moment, that mindblowing scene “was always debated on between Sector Seven and G.I. Joe. Because it could have easily been Sector Seven.” In fact, it made so much sense to put Sector Seven at the end ofRise of the Beaststhat they shot two versions of the scene, one with the canonicTransformersagency and another with G.I. Joe. As di Bonaventura explains:
“So we shot it two different ways, but in this case, it was really easy because we just had to flip a card. We waited to shoot that scene until in post, in part, because we wanted to see the movie. The character arc of Anthony Ramos' character, Noah, is such that the movie starts as a guy who can’t get a foothold. He’s turned down for a job in the beginning of it, and so organically, we got to this idea that then he gets the best job, but we wanted to wait and see how we felt about what it was that you really wanted to pay off to. That was always the thought, but it could have been something else depending on how the movie progressed, and what did you feel at the end? Was it enough to give a hug to your family? Was it enough to end by the volcano? There were definitely three different ways you could have ended this picture, and so we kind of waited until we wanted to see what the climax of the volcano was gonna feel like, didn’t understand how far we could go.”
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During our interview, di Bonaventura also revealed there were always discussions about bringingG.I. Joecharacters into theTransformerscinematic universe. However, the creative team behind the franchise wondered how the audiences would react and if it would be better to play safe. As the producer puts it:
“Part of what we wanted to find out is how is the audience gonna respond to it. And so, we weren’t sure which was going to be, frankly, the better button. It was always fun to imagine that we were gonna do G.I. Joe at some point coming into the Transformers world, or the combining in some way or form, but it was definitely an active debate for a long, long time, for years really, in terms of when. And then, in this movie, should we?”
Our inner children thank di Bonaventura for taking the risk, as theupcomingTransformerstrilogyjust became much more exciting. With the Maximals officially on the roster of heroes and nowG.I. Joecharacters ready to show up, the nextTransformersmovie promises to offer an explosive good time.
Transformers: Rise of the Beastsis currently in theater. Check out Collider’s interview with Bonaventura below.
