Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Plants Seeds For Hasbro Cinematic Universe

Paramount Pictures has been bringing IP from Hasbro to the big screen for decades now, but all feature film adaptations of the various popular toys have remained standalone pictures. The studio has had the most success with the Transformers live-action franchise, as the six-film series has generated nearly $5 billion at the box office. Rather than rebooting, Transformers has continued to flesh out the same canon that has been stretched out for over 15 years. That said, Transformers has pivoted to the past, now running prequels that take place over a decade before the Shia LaBeouf-led 2007 film. While prequels often make it obvious where the franchise is going, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts proves that the past is far more layered than anything fans could anticipate.

Warning – The rest of this article contains spoilers from Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.

After Scourge and Unicron have been defeated, Anthony Ramos's Noah Diaz goes back to his regular life, resuming his job interview process. He meets with Michael Kelly's Agent Burke who pries about his recent gap in employment. Noah plays coy about what he was up to, but Agent Burke reveals that he is well aware of the Transformers and their recent world-saving endeavor. Agent Burke then hands Noah a business card before retreating to a secret base. Noah flips the business card over to reveal the "G.I. JOE" logo.

What Will the Hasbro Cinematic Universe Look Like?

Bringing multiple Hasbro properties into one feature film has been a long time coming. 

Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura had spoken about ideas to have a Transformers x G.I. Joe crossover for over a decade now. Paramount Pictures even assembled a writers' room in April 2016 with hopes of creating a shared universe with G.I. Joe, Micronauts, M.A.S.K, Visionaries and ROM. That swing ultimately led to nothing, with di Bonaventura eventually saying that the studio has "always been against" a Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover because it wanted them to exist as their own individual franchises.

Despite past hesitations, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts indicates that Paramount is embracing the crossover. Noah seems to be positioned as the liaison between the two, but it is unclear as to when he will bring his old and new friends together.

This past May, di Bonaventura that there is a new G.I. Joe film in development, but there is no clear timetable as to when it will come to fruition. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts was announced to be the first of a new Transformers trilogy, but it remains to be seen as to when the follow-up will go into production. Either way, look for both of those developing films to be directly connected to one another by being set in a similar time period or featuring subtle references to recent in-universe events.

Beyond these two properties, Paramount could dig deeper into its Hasbro sandbox and work in more popular toys into this blossoming cinematic universe. The aforementioned Micronauts, M.A.S.K, Visionaries and ROM could be of interest, but if they wanted to get really weird, My Little Pony and Monopoly are also on the table. Stranger things have happened.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is now in theaters.