For narrative-driven toy commercials that revolve around things that are constantly changing, Transformers cartoons/movies/comics/video games are surprisingly consistent. There are always Autobots and Decepticons, there are always Optimus Primes and Megatrons, and there are always annoying humans who exist only to make the time between robot fights even more agonizing.
It’s strange, then, that Hasbro is apparently willing to drop a lot of that for its next Transformers cartoon. As reported by Variety, the new show will be titled Transformers: Robots In Disguise, and it will be a sequel to the current Transformers Prime series. It’s set to air on Hasbro’s Hub Network next year, and will feature Steven Melching, a former writer on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, as the story editor. The new show’s plot will reportedly involve a more grown-up and mature Bumblebee returning to Earth to help a ragtag group of young Autobots defeat a ragtag group of young Decepticons.
In case it’s not clear, that means the show probably won’t feature too many appearances from Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, and all of the other stuff that people like to see in their Transformers stories. But hey, at least it will have Bumblebee, the Transformers equivalent of the kid on The Walking Dead. Sure, he’s useful sometimes, but his most important job is not getting in the way of the cooler characters.
Also, it’s worth pointing out that there was already a show called Transformers: Robots In Disguise that aired back in 2001, and there’s also a comic book called Transformers: Robots In Disguise that is unrelated to that show and this new show. That’s the sort of thing that would probably be confusing to the average consumer, but, thankfully, nobody cares about any of this except Transformers nerds. They’re all too busy pretending to like/pretending they didn’t like the Michael Bay movies to pay attention anyway.