Beast Era (Prehistoric Transformers)

The Beast Era is an umbrella term used by fans to refer to the future time period in which Beast Wars and its related franchises Beast Machines and Universe are set. The term can also be applied to toy design, "Beast Era toys" referring to the common design aesthetic of the 1996-2000 toylines: ball joints, shellformers, etc.

Setting
Several centuries after the end of the Great War, the Autobots and Decepticons have been replaced by Maximals and Predacons, two mutually antagonistic empires co-existing under an uneasy truce called the Pax Cybertronia, jockeying for advantage before the resumption of all-out hostilities.

Unlike the battleground of Beast Wars, whose time frame can vary by up to 3 million years, the Beast Era has been consistently established to be ~300 years in the future.[1] The 3H Expanded Universe specifies the Beast Machines series as taking place in "316 AU," or the year 2321 Anno Domini.[2] This date may not apply for all continuities, where the relative placement and even order of the franchises can vary. *sigh* Our setting is the planet Cybertron—some three hundred years after the destruction of the chaos-bringer, Unicron.

Franchises
The Beast Era franchises include: The canceled 2001 Transtech franchise would have been part of the Beast Era, following the events of Beast Machines.
 * Beast Wars — 1996
 * Beast Wars II — 1998
 * Beast Wars Neo — 1999

The 2001 Robots in Disguise series (featuring vehicular Autobots vs. bestial Predacons) set on modern-day Earth is not considered a Beast Era series, though it may have been conceived as a logical inversion of Beast Wars II.

The Beast Era could be considered a continuity family, since each franchise features many continuities (not all of which fit together), but it is generally treated as a subset of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Other information
IDW Publishing's four-issue mini series, Beast Wars: The Gathering, and its sequel, Beast Wars: The Ascending, can also be included in continuity, as their premise is based on an unresolved plot point from the American Beast Wars cartoon.

Also included in this continuity is BotCon 2007's 15-minute Beast Wars prequel episode, "Theft of the Golden Disk", which shows how Megatron and his team of Predacon criminals stole the Golden Disk.

Finally, the backstory of Blackarachnia and Nightscream in TransTech is part of the Beast Wars: Uprising continuity, although it is vastly different from the rest.

TV series

 * Beast Wars
 * Beast Wars II
 * Beast Wars Neo