It’s Time To Give The Dinobots Their Own ‘Transformers’ Spin-Off

While director Travis Knight and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura are refusing to use the word “reboot” when it comes to Bumblebee, it’s very clear that the Transformers film resets the universe for future films. Despite a few small nods to the previous films, the beginning and end of Bumblebee basically ignore the timeline of the Michael Bay-directed 2007 film as well as the last entry in the series, Transformers: The Last Knight.

From Bumblebee no longer arriving way back in the past and somehow fighting Nazis to Optimus Prime and the other Autobots arriving at the same time, the film essentially gives them a clean slate moving forward without the confusing timeline established in the other five live-action films. Look, I’ll admit to being a fan of three of the five but the events of that timeline made less sense than the X-Men films.

And though we’re going to have to wait and see if Bumblebee is a financial success for the studio, Paramount and Hasbro are currently developing two more Transformers films that we know of: An animated film set on Cybertron and an Optimus Prime solo film. And while I’m very excited about these both, there’s a Transformers spin-off that is sitting there just full of potential. It’s time for the Dinobots to get their own spin-off film, you cowards. But I’m not talking about the abomination that was the Dinobots in the last two Michael Bay directed films. No, let’s keep up what Bumblebee started and bring the G1 versions of the characters that the fans love to the big screen.  I was fine with a number of choices made by Bay and company for their live-action Transformers films but the Dinobots deserve better than those versions.

But could the Dinobots really handle their own film? I’d argue so. Regardless of your opinions on the franchise, there’s definitely something that the box office returns of the Jurassic Park films have made very clear: People love dinosaurs on the big screen. And it’s also safe to say that audiences also love robots. Which means that it’s kind of a scientific fact that a Dinobots film should be a no-brainer for Paramount. (And very likely to be better than that last Jurassic World film. Yikes.) When you look at any list of the most popular Transformers characters, you’re almost certain to find either the Dinobots as a group or Grimlock by himself. The latter usually ranked amongst the top characters alongside such characters as Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream, and Soundwave. That’s saying something.

I’ll admit that the characters might be a little harder to bring to the screen on their own than many of the other Autobots but it’s really just about finding the right story and right team to do it. Let’s keep it real here though: It’s robot dinosaurs. Anyone acting like they wouldn’t want to see this is lying. Would you be interested in seeing the Dinobots get their own Transformers spin-off? Sound off with your thoughts in the comments section below.