- "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" is set before 2007's "Transformers."
- Some elements in the movie conflict with the events of the previous Michael Bay-directed movies.
"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" did not have to stick to the timeline established in the previous movies, director Steven Caple Jr. has said.
While the first five live-action "Transformers" movies can be watched in chronological order, both "Bumblebee" and "Rise of the Beasts" are set before Michael Bay's original 2007 movie.
However, certain elements in the new movies conflict with the events of the previous movies, such as Optimus Prime arriving on Earth 20 years earlier than shown in "Transformers," and Unicron being a planet-eating villain in "Rise of the Beasts" rather than a Transformer living inside of the Earth, as was established in "The Last Knight."
Speaking about the continuity, Caple told Insider: "We tried to keep it as close as we can, but 'Bumblebee' already had creative liberties with Optimus Prime landing here on Earth and being here at the end of it."
"We've broke it a bit there. I wasn't here for that section but I just want to pick up where 'Bumblebee' left off," he added.
Caple continued: "We weren't trying to get too deep into it where we're messing up the Sam Witwicky storyline, but as a project evolves, I think it's going to find its own light and its own course, which I'm excited about. But I think for us, Paramount and Hasbro, was like, 'What is the best story right now?'"
"Transformers" producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura told Insider that he doesn't see the changes to the timeline as "inconsistencies."
"What we're trying to do is explore the characters in a different way. And so what's fun about going back to 1994 is we can introduce Optimus Prime in a different way than when we met him in 2007, and in a sense, what you can do then is understand who he became in 2007," Bonaventura said. "He's still getting used to us and he's pissed he's not home."
"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" is in theaters now.