Two New Transformers Movies Reportedly in Development Including Franchise Reboot

The Transformers film franchise will continue chugging forward with at least two new films in the immediate future. After Bumblebee was a success among critics, Variety is reporting Paramount is looking to reinvigorate the entire franchise. Though exact details on either project remain scarce, the report suggests one script will be set in the universe started by the Hailee Steinfeld-starring Bumblebee while another will serve as a reboot to the larger Transformers universe. It’s expected the Bumblebee-adjacent property will be a smaller scale, lower-budget film to match the tone of its predecessor while a reboot will have an ensemble cast and be a summer blockbuster spectacle.

Again, details are scarce and it’s unclear if these are the same projects that have previously been reported to be in the works or serving as a completely new slate for Paramount. Last March, Transformers producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura had confirmed Optimus Prime would be appearing in at least two future movies, a direct Bumblebee sequel and a sequel in the main Transformers franchise set at some point after the events of Transformers: The Last Knight.

“We are already working on two projects and both have scripts under development,” Di Bonaventura told Japanese outlet Cinema. “One is the latest in the main family series following the events of Transformers: The Last Knight and the other is a sequel to Bumblebee. So, we are thinking of films where Optimus Prime and Bumblebee will be the buddies, but when Optimus and Bumblebee are the movies of the protagonists … how human beings get involved in their drama In the first place, the size is different between human beings and their’s …. It’s a worrying point (laughs).”

Bumblebee ended up settling with a 92 percent Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the highest of any film in the franchise. Commercially, Bumblebee ended up as the lowest-grossing of the bunch, bringing in just $465.2 million worldwide against a reported production budget of $102 million. Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Transformers: Age of Extinction sit atop the box office charts with the franchise with box office receipts totalling $1.12 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively.