Michael Bay is ready to roll out again. After stepping away from the Transformers franchise following The Last Knight in 2017, the director who practically defined the series is back, and not just as a producer.
According to Puck, Bay is actively developing a new Transformers film at Paramount and has writer Jordan VanDina (of SuperMansion and Animaniacs) working on a script. Bay actually may directing this thing.
That’s a big shift, considering Bay once admitted he stuck around too long. While Promoting Ambulance in 2022, Bay said: “I made too many of them. Steven Spielberg said, ‘Just stop at three.’ And I said I’d stop.
“The studio begged me to do a fourth, and then that made a billion too. And then I said I’m gonna stop here. And they begged me again. I should have stopped. They were fun to do.”
Now, after a much-needed break, Bay seems energized to take another crack at the robotic war saga, after the studio obviously begged him to come back again.
While the critics weren’t exactly lining up to shower praise on his films, the box office numbers speak for themselves. Even the “least successful” Bay-directed Transformers flick made over $600 million globally. Compare that to Bumblebee, Rise of the Beasts, or even Transformers One, each of which was better reviewed but fell short of that blockbuster magic.
But Bay’s return brings complications, especially when it comes to the long-gestating G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover. With multiple Transformers projects already in the works, reportedly five in total, there’s a lot of juggling going on behind the scenes.
One of those projects is a live-action adaptation from Transformers One director Josh Cooley, and yes, another is that long-discussed crossover with G.I. Joe. It’s unclear whether that team-up is a priority anymore or just one of several competing visions.
As Puck notes, “Josh Cooley… just closed a deal to pursue a live-action take. There’s also a possible G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover in development, and the studio has two separate ideas in early stages.”
Bay seems aware of the franchise’s legacy and where he fits into it. Reflecting on the 2007 original, he said: “The first one was scary. It was technology we didn’t know would work, and then it became very successful… It made more than [$709 million], that’s a lot of movie tickets and a lot of people that have seen it.”
I haven’t been a fan of most of the Transformers movies that Bay has made and I can’t say I’m excited to see him return. I think I’d much rather see him jump into the G.I. Joe franchise than see him make another Transformers movie. But, Paramount is obviously hoping he will make another Transformers movie that will print cash for them.
There’s no immediate deadline for these projects, Paramount just has to be in production on at least one of them by 2029 to retain the rights. We’ll just have to wait and see how this all turns out.
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