How Rise Of The Beasts Sets Up The Transformers' Sequel - And Biggest Crossover

Contains spoilers for "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts"

In the rankings of absolutely nuts (and bolts) endings in the "Transformers" movies, the latest installment, "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts," just took poll position for the franchise's best cliffhanger to date. Well, for those that know their golden era Saturday morning cartoons, that is. Things started as they always do, with the Autobots' rule-abiding leader Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), having some closing words to roll us out — only this time accompanied by the pre-sequel hero of the hour, Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos). Great team effort, guys, but it turns out that neither of them could match the almighty mic drop that occurred at the hands of Michael Kelly doing... A job interview?

Easily on the list of stars that make anything they're in immediately better, Kelly turning up minutes before the credits should've sent the alarm bells ringing instantly. It turns out that this isn't just any old job interview for what looks like a shipping company and Noah's potential employer already knows everything about his new candidate. More importantly, he knows what happened in Peru, which larger-than-life characters he allied with, and that his sick brother's medical bills will be covered in the foreseeable future. 

Considering that Kelly's character works for the G.I. Joe, it all makes sense. After all, knowing is half the battle.

That's right, Noah has just been offered a position to work with the G.I. Joe, quite literally opening the secret door for one massive mechanized Hasbro property to collide with another. But how? Who signed off on this? What will happen when the Autobots, Decepticons, Joes, and COBRA come face to face? As it turns out, it's been something Paramount was reluctant to embark on for some time. 

Speaking to Uproxx about the potential crossover in 2021, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura explained, "Every regime that's been at Paramount is against it because it's taking two franchises and making them one, but I think it's inevitable." Like the talking semi-truck says, "Until all are one," right?

One fan, in particular, was pretty vocal about the idea and went straight to the top to query why this hadn't come about. "Steven Caple, who's directing 'Transformers' right now, is a huge 'G.I. Joe' fan, too," Bonaventura revealed. "And he was like, 'Why aren't you doing that?' Everyone was like, 'Well, try to make a "Transformers" movie really good. Then we'll talk about that.'" It turns out they must have. 

But with "Rise of the Beasts" going all Nick Fury on us, just what would a "Transformers/G.I. Joe" crossover film look like? Well, to translate from Cybertronian to our native human tongue — bonkers.

The Transformers and G.I. Joes have crossed paths plenty of times, with their first encounter going back to 1986 in comic book form. In fact, this is the medium where most of their epic stand-offs have occurred. Many of their altercations followed the routine method of good guys from both sides, misunderstanding and then aligning with one another to stop a joint threat. This has led to moments like the death and revival of Bumblebee, COBRA having a Cybertronian connection, and the Earth being a planet-sized Transformer named Atlas.

Such hard-hitting and — ahem — totally believable stories would undoubtedly be great to see for fans, but if this crossover does come to pass, it could be a huge benefit for one-half of this team-up that has struggled to form a solid spot in theaters. While the "Transformers" franchise has basked in its box-office billions, the "G.I. Joe" film franchise has only made $715 million collectively with the three films that have been made. If the Paramount top dogs believe Steven Caple Jr. has got the touch (cue the music) after "Rise of the Beasts," he could be saving more worlds than one with "Transformers/G.I. Joe" and turn a COBRA-level track record into a long-awaited success.