Key Takeaways
- Steven Spielberg will serve as a creative producer on Paramount and Hasbro’s next Transformers movie.
- Michael Bay, who directed the first five live-action films, is in talks to return as director after sitting out Bumblebee and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
- The untitled project remains in development from a script by Jason Fuchs.
Steven Spielberg is attached to produce the next film in the Transformers franchise, and Michael Bay could be returning to direct, too.
As reported by Deadline, Paramount Pictures and Hasbro are gearing up to bring the franchise back to theaters with a new installment. Spielberg is reportedly attached in a creative producer role alongside producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. Michael Bay, meanwhile, is reportedly in talks to join the currently untitled and unannounced project as its director.
The live-action Transformers series of films kicked off in 2007 with a movie starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, and Tyrese, among others. LaBeouf and Fox returned for the sequel, but Fox sat out the third entry. By the time the fourth entry, Transformers: Age of Extinction, hit theaters in 2014, the new lead of the series was Mark Wahlberg. Michael Bay directed the first five movies in the series, but was not involved for Bumblebee in 2018 or Transformers: Rise of the Beasts in 2023.
Spielberg previously served as an executive producer on the franchise, with a creative role for the first two films by Bay. It’s unclear if any of the characters previously featured in the franchise, outside of the classic Autobots and Decepticons, will return in the next entry. One person we know won’t be returning is the late Peter Cullen, the voice behind Optimus Prime. The next Transformers is currently in development based on a script by Jason Fuchs.
Michael Bay recently reflected on the impact Transformers had on his and Shia LaBeouf’s career, noting that the troubled actor “cried twice” after he went on the Transformers ride at Universal Studios. Robert Pattinson also recently called Transformers “the definitive movie of the 2000s.”
