What You Need To Know About The Newly Announced Transformers Movie
The improbably long-lived Transformers film franchise, born of an unholy union between Paramount Pictures and Hasbro Studios, is set to unleash a seventh incarnation upon the world. Even more shockingly, some of the pieces that are coming together around the project actually make the forthcoming film sound darn near intriguing.
The fifth Transformers film, subtitled The Last Knight, hit theaters back in 2017, capping off what had been a pretty self-contained, if a bit uneven, continuity. Explosion enthusiast Michael Bay moved on from the franchise after The Last Knight, leading Paramount to launch a soft reboot of the property with 2018's kinda-sorta-prequel Bumblebee.
Despite the critical drubbing bestowed on the last few films in the series, Transformers has grossed over $4 billion for Paramount, so it was only a matter of time before the studio went back to that particular creative well. Ironically, Bumblebee improved on The Last Knight's critical response, but had the lowest box office take of any Transformers movie to date. With over $467 million in global revenues, Bumblebee didn't exactly bumble-bomb, but the underperformance did lead Paramount to let the property lie fallow for a couple years while it rethought its next moves.
Back in January we found out that Transformers 7 was officially a go, and now we know that Paramount plans to move forward with an exciting new director at the helm: Steven Caple Jr. of Creed 2 fame (via Deadline).
Paramount and Hasbro have found the director of the future for Transformers
The January announcement that Paramount was ready to reawaken the dormant Transformers franchise came alongside the announcement of a broader plan to expand the property. The cinematic reboot included two simultaneous script orders: one from James Vanderbilt (Scream 5, The Amazing Spider-Man 2) and another from Joby Harold (Obi-Wan Kenobi, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword). Harold eventually won the transformer sweepstakes (little is known about the details of either script), and Paramount began actively searching for a director by summer's end, a search that ultimately led them to Caple Jr.
Though negotiations have reportedly yet to begin, Caple Jr. is the top choice for both Paramount and Hasbro, making his ultimate attachment essentially a foregone conclusion. The director received high marks for his work with Michael B. Jordan on Creed 2 and is likely to bring a fresh authorial eye to the rebooted franchise.
You read it here first: The as-yet untitled Transformers 7 is already gearing up to be the most exciting visual effects-laden film based on an '80s cartoon originally created to sell action figures that you've seen since 2018.