Botcon RoTF Writers Panel

At Botcon's first day, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman participated in a question and answer session about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen that provides few bits of new information. Highlights below, the full breakdown is here. Picture from here.

- Before the strike, only has a 20 page outline.
- Immediately after the strike Bay locked the three writers into hotels room to get a shooting script ready as shooting started four months later.
- Shia's damaged hand (due to a car accident) does not appear until the third act and writing it into the film was difficult.
- Did not rule out an appearance of Unicron or Primus in the franchise
(They have indicated in past interviews they don't rule out anything until they actually start writing a script so that answer doesn't mean a whole lot).
- When asked if the Matrix of Leadership was in the movie (as indicated in the adaptations), they replied "That's a very good question!"
- Various combiners show up unexpectedly, with no buildup.
- The Twins are mostly comic relief. Their ice cream truck mode plays a key plot point in the movie (Not in any adaptations I read).
- Hasbro pretty much gave the writers carte blanche and only offered suggestions the characters. Writers went through Transformers school (which Bay did for the first movie) that provided them with character development and story direction.
- Many characters in the sequel the writers wanted for the first but did not make the cut.