Warning: MILD SPOILERS for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts are ahead!
In 2018, the Transformers film series wound the clock back to 1987 for Bumblebee, which chronicled the eponymous Autobot meeting Hailee Steinfeld’s Charlie Watson. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts picks up with Bee, Optimus Prime and their allies in 1994, and while the 2023 new movie release chiefly stands as a standalone sequel, there is a quick reference to Charlie. However, director Steven Caple Jr. has revealed that Rise of the Beasts nearly included a bigger callback to Steinfeld’s character.
Charlie is indirectly referred to in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts shortly after Mirage has introduced Anthony Ramos’ Noah Diaz to Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Arcee. Optimus is hesitant to trust any humans, which Bee objects to, prompting the Autobot leader to acknowledge that a human had indeed been kind to him seven years earlier. Caple told THR that there was a more direct moment involving Charlie that ended up being cut from Rise of the Beasts:
We went even further with it where Bumblebee actually took out the Polaroid photo of him and Hailee’s character in Bumblebee. She took a selfie of the two of them together, with a Polaroid [camera], and so we actually shot that version. We probably have it in the deleted scenes; I’m sure we do. Bumblebee showed the photo [to Prime], and he was further pushing how tight he was with a human. I like Hailee Steinfeld. I have not met her, but the way our movie ends, there’s always possibilities.
The beginning of Bumblebee saw Optimus Prime ordering the yellow Autobot to flee the war-torn Cybertron and go to Earth to set up a base of operations for their surviving allies. After his memory was damaged when the Decepticon known as Blitzwing attacked him on our world, Bee went into hiding as a 1967 Volkswagen Beetle in a scrapyard, and it was this car Charlie Watson decided to buy for her 18th birthday. Soon discovering the true nature of her purchase, Charlie and Bee became friends, and the latter protected the former from Shatter and Dropkick. Sadly, the end of Bumblebee saw Charlie and Bee going their separate ways, and Rise of the Beasts made it clear that they haven’t seen each other again, with that picture being Bee’s only memento of his time with the girl.
The good news is that as Steven Caple Jr. noted, this scene was Bee’s snapshot will likely be included as a deleted scene on Rise of the Beasts’ home media release. The filmmaker expressed hope that Hailee Steinfeld will reprise Charlie in one of the future Transformers movies. You can read through our Rise of the Beasts ending breakdown to learn where the movie leaves things with Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and the rest of the gang, but suffice it to say that the door’s still open for Bee and Charlie to reunite one day. Even off it’s not through the direct Bumblebee sequel Steinfeld had once hoped to make, it would still be nice to see where Charlie has ended up as an adult.
If you’d like to revisit Bumblebee, it can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription, and count on Transformers: Rise of the Beasts ending up on the same platform once its theatrical run is over. The next Transformers movie on the docket is the animated Transformers One, which stars Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and more, and will open on September 13, 2024. The next live-action installment hasn’t been ironed out yet, but we’ll pass along details about it once they start coming in.