Originally published June 22, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
With the latest instalment in the franchise, Transformers: The Last Knight, opening to near-universally negative reviews [read ours here and here] and a series-low start at the box office, it seems that audiences may finally be tiring of the Michael Bay brand of Transformers movie.
At least, that’s what Paramount and Hasbro will presumably be hoping, given that they have plans to massively expand the franchise with a whole slate of spinoff movies, beginning with next year’s Bumblebee standalone movie. And, according to producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the solo film is going to be very different from what we’ve seen so far from the five Bay-directed movies.
“I know we’re doing a spinoff first in the Bumblebee movie, and that is a very distinctive departure from what you’ve been seeing so far,” di Bonaventura told Collider. “The objective of that movie is to develop more time with less robots in a way, and to go back to 1985 and go back to sort of the original heritage if you would of the Transformers. So it has a very distinct idea in it, and then whatever is gonna happen with the chemistry is what’s gonna happen, but it really is a young female lead opposite Bumblebee.”
“There are dramatically less Transformers,” he continued. “We hired purposefully Travis Knight, who is a very distinct filmmaker. You can’t compete with Michael – you’re gonna lose. Also I think the audience wants something different all the time, let’s keep them interested. They’re gonna get a very emotionally complex story, a very tight story in terms of its location and in terms of its storytelling. In fact it reminds me a little bit of Iron Giant years ago when I did that movie at Warner Bros. It just reminds me a little bit of that where it was very contained and yet it didn’t feel small.”
Transformers: Bumblebee is set for release on June 22nd 2018, and sees Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings) directing from a script by Christina Hodson (Shut In). So far, the only confirmed cast member is Hailee Steinfeld (The Edge of Seventeen), who will play a tomboy who works as a mechanic after school.
