Waukster Online

Robert Orci, screen writter for Transformers 2, recently revealed that we will see one of the most popular decepticons make his debut in the sequel - Soundwave! To those who don’t know him, he’s the guy that releases robotic cassete tapes from his chest. He also turns into a cool radio (LOL).

Here’s a partial transcript of the interview he did for IGN.

Q: What’s the status of Transformers 2?

ORCI: That starts shooting in three weeks.

Q: What do you want to do that builds from the first one?

ORCI: We want to follow some of our lead characters which we thought were so successful. Shia’s character; where is he two years later? His girlfriend, where is she two years later? But for fans, I guess I’ll address this more for the fans, because I think if you didn’t know Transformers at all and you came in and you liked the first movie, you’ll like the second one. However, some of the die hard fans, which we were a member of that group, felt, well, maybe it’s a little light. Maybe it wasn’t science fictiony enough. And I think the second one will deliver on a true Transformers story. You know, the first one, we had a limited budget for what it was. Every second of Transformer time is a million dollars or whatever the heck it is, so this time, because we were able to prove through the whole thing that it’s a viable live-action movie, we have a little more freedom this time to actually learn about the Transformers, see them, hear them. It’s a better balance between the humans and the Transformers.

Q: Is there one particular Transformer, good or bad, that you absolutely had to get into the sequel?

ORCI: Yes.

Q: You’re not gonna tell us.

ORCI: I’ll tell you. We had to get Soundwave in there.

Q: Nice. Where Soundwave goes, will Ravage follow?

ORCI: Perhaps! Who’s Ravage? … I’m kidding! You know, we had Ravage in an early draft of the first movie and Soundwave, and we couldn’t do it right and I think this time hopefully we’ll have the ability to do it.

Q: Transformers is beloved by a lot of people, but it’s kind of a kitschy property in the minds of some people. Star Trek is the holy grail. How big a responsibility was it taking that on?

ORCI: If we fail, I have family members who will disown us. It’s a big responsibility. We thought of Transformers as a warm up – as training for what Trek’s gonna be. The difference is that Transformers started as a toy. I personally felt that we had a little more freedom to make sure that what we did for live-action was not going to be a slave to whatever happened [in previous incarnations]. Star Trek has 40 years of established history. It’s been live-action, so it’s not like no one’s ever done a live-action Star Trek. It’s been done! So the responsibility is gigantic. We were aware of it from the very beginning. It’s kept us up at night. It’s why we’re so happy to be part of a such a great team with J.J., with Damon Lindelof, with Bryan Burk. And so we felt, if we can get a story by everybody, that all five us like, then we’ll probably be in okay hands.

It will be interesting to see if Transformers 2 will exceed the success of the first movie. I hope they feature more characters in the next installment - I’d love to see Grymlock thrown into the mix!