The Secret History of the Transformers Revealed in Transformers 5

Transformers: The Last Knight is a springboard installment of the franchise, meant to set up an entire new chapter of the saga.

There are already story plans for Transformers 6 & 7 in place; there’s a Bumblebee spinoff movie that will be set in the 1980s, and there’s even another Transformers spinoff that could take place in ancient Rome. Transformers 5 spends a great deal of time setting up backstory that will make all of these Transformers spinoff films tie back to the main franchise, through key moments in history that are detailed in the film.

Here is the secret history of The Transfomers, as revealed in Transformers: The Last Knight.

The Real Arthurian Legend

The expanded Transformers lore in The Last Knight reaches back to Medieval Times to chronicle how King Arthur and his legendary Knights of the Round Table defeated the barbaric Saxons in the Dark Ages… with help from the Transformers. 

As the film tells it, Arthur’s sorcerer adviser Merlin was actually a con artist drunk, who happened to know that a team of Transformers were stranded on Earth after their ship crashed. The Transformers team was comprised of twelve Autobots who patterned themselves after Medieval Knights, and could combine into a fearsome three-headed dragon called Dragonstorm. These Autobots became the secret members of the Arthurian Round Table, standing behind the famous Knights of Legend (Lancelot, Gawain, Percival, etc…).

After Arthur and Merlin’s time ends, the twelve Transformer Knights go dormant in their ship, waiting for a “Thirteenth Knight” that will supposedly arrive to restore them.

WHAT IT MEANS: The big revelation that the outcome of the Dark Ages was determined by Transformers sets the stage for an expanded story about how the Transformers’ influence led to the fall of Rome and start of the Dark Ages. With Ancient Rome already planned as a setting for one of the spinoff films, this revision of history makes sense. 

Bumblebee’s Secret Origin

Bumblebee has been one of the mainstays of the Transformers movie franchise, a loyal Autobot soldier who has fought alongside Optimus Prime and human soldiers for all five films. 

However, in Transformers: The Last Knight we learn that Bumblebee has been in service of the cause for much much longer than anyone would’ve guessed. A flashback sequence shows us how Bumblebee (and Hot Rod) were secretly part of a covert team of Allied forces that battled the Nazis and helped to turn the tide of WWII, while keeping the Transformers’ presence on Earth a secret. 

WHAT IT MEANS: When it was announced that Bumblebee would be getting his own spinoff film prequel to the main Transformers movies, fans wondered what the storyline would be. Now that we know just how long Bumblebee has been operating on Earth as a Robot in Disguise, it makes perfect sense that there could be a prequel about his previous adventures. Best yet, we now know that the Bumblebee prequel will take the Transformers movie franchise back to the G1 era of the ’80s cartoon – complete with Bumblebee’s classic Volkswagen body!

The Cybertronian Gods

Even though Transformers 5‘s storyline delves deep into the mystery of Cybertron and Earth’s connection, not everything is resolved by the ending of the film.

Transformers: The Last Knight introduces Quintessa, the supposed Cybertonian Goddess of Life. Early on in the film, Quintessa captures Optimus Prime and transforms him into an evil alter-ego, Nemesis Prime, with a mission to lead her to Earth. As his “maker” Prime has no choice to obey. When Quintessa and Prime get to Earth, it is revealed that Earth, itself, is a Transformer – one that Quintessa identifies as the malevolent Transformers God, Unicron. 

According to Quintessa, Unicron has the energy that (if siphoned) can restore Cybertron to its prime state (no pun), instead of the desolate wasteland it’s become. Even though Quintessa fails in her plot to leave Earth depleted and crumbling, a post-credits scene reveals that she is still on Earth hiding out, disguised as a human woman, plotting to kill Unicron once and for all. 

WHAT IT MEANS: The connection between Earth/Unicron and Cybertron/Quintessa is going to be the main thrust of the Transformers sequels (at least Transformers 6, and probably 7, as well. There’s also a big mystery in this origin story that can/will become the subject of some other prequel films: Quintessa claims that she created the Transformers, but the fact that she comes with a human form suggests that she may have once been human. That creates a serious “Chicken or the egg?” origin question that other Transformers movies will have to answer. 

The Earth Attraction

One of the biggest teases in the Transformers: The Last Knight storyline is Sir Edmund Burton (Anthony Hopkins) teasing Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) with an explanation for why the Transformers race keeps arriving on Earth, even without Optimus Prime and Megatron to lead them. 

As stated, the explanation for why the Transformers keep arriving is found in the King Arthur Legend: During that era, Merlin was given a staff that Quintessa used to power Cybertron and the Transformers race. The Cybertronian Knights buried the staff with Merlin when the sorcerer passed away, awaiting the day when “The Thirteenth Knight” would arrive to reclaim it. That power source, and the fact that Earth is actually Unicron, are the pivotal reasons why the Transformers have been attracted to Earth over and over again. That, and the variety of other power MacGuffins that Michael Bay has woven into the story of each film. 

WHAT IT MEANS: Now that we know the real major importance of planet Earth in the Transformers movie lore, it’s easy to see how the franchise can expand into both prequels and sequels, which can chronicle other important event or developments surrounding the staff and Unicron – even if the characters themselves don’t know. 

More Transformers News

MORE Transformers News:

• Transformers 5 Official Review
• How Transformers 5 Connects to the Previous Films
• How Unicron’s Reveal Sets up Transformers 6
• The Big Change to Bumblebee in Transformers 5
• Does Nemesis Prime Appear in Transformers 5?
• Transformers 5’s Unicron Explained
• The Big Twist In the Transformers Origin Story
• Transformers 5 Is the Worst Reviewed Movie in the Franchise
• Who Dies in Transformers 5?
• Transformers 5 Post-Credits Scene Explained

Transformers: The Last Knight is now in theaters.

Transformers: The Last Knight is directed by Michael Bay. The film stars Mark Wahlberg and Stanley Tucci reprising their roles from Transformers: Age of Extinction, with Josh Duhamel, and John Turturro reprising roles from the first three Transformers movies.

Transformers: The Last Knight’s voice cast includes Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime, John Goodman as Hound, and John DiMaggio as Crosshairs. Other transformers appearing the film include Bumblebee, Drift, Hot Rod, Cogman, Canopy, Sqweeks, Grimlock, Megatron, Barricade, Onslaught, Hooligan, and Mohawk.