Once relegated to being among the smallest and physically weakest of the Autobots – and forced to transform into a Volkswagen Beetle for Primus’ sake – Bumblebee has emerged to become arguably the most recognizable and marketable member of the Transformers franchise; sorry, Optimus. Bee’s popularity is so hot at the moment that a spin-off movie – though a lower-cost one – centering on the vocally-challenged robot has already been announced by Hasbro and Paramount Pictures.

But while Steve Weintraub was discovering the status of the standalone movie while visiting the set of Transformers: The Last Knight, he also found out quite the interesting tidbit: There exists an R-rated idea for a Bumblebee movie that will, in all likelihood, never see the light of day. That’s crazy. So while producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura got us caught up on all things Bumblebee, be sure to read to the end to hear what Michael Bay had to say about the R-rated writers room take.

First up, from di Bonaventura, comes an explanation (sort of) for how Transformers: The Last Knight might set up the spin-off movie featuring Bee: