Michael Bay Reveals the Scary Thing About Directing the First Transformers Movie

July 3rd marks 15 years since Transformers hit theatres. The movie was a big hit and spawned six sequels and spin-offs, including the upcoming Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Now, the 2007 movie is being re-released in theatres this month in honor of the anniversary. The movie was helmed by Michael Bay who is also known for directing films such as Armageddon, Bad Boys, Pearl Harbor, and more. Recently, Bay spoke with Yahoo! about making Transformers and revealed the scariest part about the filmmaking process. 

“It was scary. Because if the robots didn’t look dead real, [the movie would not have worked],” Bay shared. “But we broke a lot of visual effects ground on that.” The director added that he gained confidence in the film after showing early footage to his friend. “I surround myself with normal people, people not in the business,” Bay explained. “He goes, ‘Bay, I don’t know about that Transformer thing.’ … We’re having a beer, I’m like, ‘Yeah, I know. It’s a little scary.’ Then I showed him the first scene, Scorponok jumping out of the desert, right behind Tyrese. I showed it to him. He goes, ‘Oh, OK. Alright, I get it now.’”

As for the upcoming Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, the movie is set to be a live-action adaptation of the fan-favorite Transformers: Beast Wars series. The movie is set to be helmed by Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II) and the lineup of Transformers characters is expected to include Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Mirage, Arcee, Wheeljack, Scourge, and Nightbird. The plot of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will see the rebooted franchise timeline of Bumblebee move to 1994 Brooklyn, where “a pair of archaeologists from Brooklyn come into an ancient conflict through a globe-trotting adventure that ties in with three factions of Transformers: the Maximals, the Predacons and the Terrorcons.”

“We wanted to give the audience a lot of new,” producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura previously explained. “We have exhausted I would say the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons. How do we find a new set of villains and priorities, saving the world is left to the Autobots and in this case the Maximals. Part of the new news, if you’ve seen the other movies, you’re going to see villains you’ve never seen before and a lot of elements we’ve never done before.”

Transformers will be back in theaters on Sunday, July 10th, and Thursday, July 14th. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is expected to debut in theaters on June 9, 2023.