The Transformers’ home planet of Cybertron will be seen in Bumblebee. After years of letting director Michael Bay take control of the Transformers franchise, new life is being breathed into the property. Paramount is giving an entire spinoff to their mute yellow VW Beetle Transformer, Bumblebee. The movie is led by Hailee Steinfeld to help set it apart from the films that came before. Kubo and the Two Strings director Travis Knight, meanwhile, is the one creating the film from his own vision.

The first trailer for Bumblebee surprised many thanks to the sudden heart and character a Transformers movie was infused with. The movie is largely standalone set in the 80s, despite rumors of Optimus Prime making an appearance. However, we will be heading to the home world of these robots at some point in the film.

Bumblebee director Travis Knight confirmed during the film’s San Diego Comic-Con panel that Cybertron will indeed be included as part of the film and that “it is awesome.” The planet was briefly glimpsed during flashbacks in Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon, but we’ll now get the chance to possibly see it during its glory days.

The inclusion of Cybertron in any way goes a long way in making Bumblebee something more than a standalone. This could be the way for bigger characters, such as Optimus Prime, to appear depending on when these scenes take place. It is likely as part of the origin story for Bumblebee as the film is largely grounded and supposed to be smaller in scale than previous films. A sudden venture to Cybertron doesn’t exactly fit the goals that Bumblebee looks to achieve.

There’s plenty of interest in seeing the Transformers’ planet during its prime and could potentially help set up Bumblebee as a launching point for future spinoffs. One of the biggest complaints that came from Bay’s five films was the constant focus on human characters and not letting the actual title characters be the leads. An easy way to fix that is telling a story based on Cybertron, possibly even the actual fall of the planet.

A giant space war with intelligent robotic beings could be an epic next standalone movie for Paramount to make. Plus, while Bumblebee is believed to exist in the same continuity as Bay’s films, there’s still speculation that it could actually be part of the Hasbro cinematic universe that Paramount and AllSpark Pictures are developing. If that does turn out to be the case, the inclusion of Cybertron could help lay the foundation for the future of Transformers movies.

MORE: Bumblebee’s Decepticon Voice Actors Revealed

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  • Bumblebee Release Date: 2018-12-21