Well, only a few peeps dared to venture to this thread and come up with real ideas we can sink our teeth into. I know there is another sequel thread being posted in lately, but here goes anyway.
What if, in a prequel, Wall-E’s original maker dies, and all his property, including Wall-E, is auctioned off? BnL then buys the design. I’ve thought about how advanced Wall-E would be at this time, early in the movie, and it’s important that he not be smart or much self-aware. His character development is paramount in a prequel.
How might Wall-E interact with any still working toys he runs across? Since he isn’t that smart yet, he could be become easily confused, thinking that these are just like the functional bots. This might set up some amusing situations.
What would the world look like in this earlier time? As things go from green to wretched, at this point things would be mostly green. This is an advantage, because the movie has to end being bleak with a dead world. The first Wall-E ended with the credits showing a world in bloom, being restored to its former glory. And that’s probably how it should be shown early on in a Wall-E2, to be properly book ended. Also, contrasts are good for all stories. Just like in IceAge3, those creators knew they wouldn’t be able to hold the audiences interest in a bleak world of rock and ice (with only a few dirt patches), but even after the ‘meltdown’, they needed to keep a lot of ice to keep the name, and the franchise, going. So IA3 included a green world of the dino’s.
I don’t think a blame game should be foisted upon the audience, just like the original creators carefully avoided pointing the finger at politicians, or BnL, or consumers.
Stanton made the most important thing about Wall-E’s personality would be to reflect his loneliness. And that’s just how a prequel has to end. Grief over lost friends, who have to leave or die. And extreme loneliness.