Michael Bay’s Transformers Movies Were Almost Derailed After the First Film

Since 2007, Optimus Prime and the other Transformers have become cinematic fixtures. The Transformers saga has been relentless in delivering new installments to audiences, with the franchise now spanning eight entries and (thanks to Transformers One) two timelines. Even with Transformers One coming up short on box office expectations, it doesn’t look like this franchise is winding down anytime soon. A Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover headlined by Chris Hemsworth is reportedly in development as the next live-action Transformers title.

Even considering all of these feats, Transformers almost had its entire film series derailed immediately after the first movie. While 2007’s Transformers was a massive box office hit and left a mighty pop culture footprint, external factors in the film industry nearly took down those formidable robots in disguise. Megatron, Unicron, Dinobots, these are all easily overwhelmed foes for the movie version of Optimus Prime. Elements like a writers’ strike and release date woes, though? That’s all a lot more harrowing to overcome.

Revenge of the Fallen’s Pesky June 2009 Release Date

In September 2007, Paramount Pictures finally revealed that a second Transformers movie (later called Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) would hit theaters in June 2009. This was two months after Transformers surpassed all box office expectations. However, this news also landed roughly two months before the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike. With writers putting down their pens in early November 2007, the clock was the ticking. Screenwriters Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Ehren Kruger scrambled to get a story ready for the feature before all the picket signs went up. Allegedly, the screenplay was turned in to Paramount brass mere hours before the strike started.

A two-year turnaround time for a sequel as heavy on visual effects as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was always going to be troubling. In the 2000s, most blockbuster follow-ups (save for Spider-Man 2 or the Harry Potter installments) opted for three-ish year waits between installments, unless two sequels were shot consecutively. Paramount, though, wanted to hit the ground running, exploiting audience affection for 2007’s Transformers. In hindsight, it’s also likely executives wanted to a guaranteed summer 2009 blockbuster in case the strike postponed other major projects.

Believe it or not, another strike loomed large over Revenge of the Fallen’s existence. A potential Director’s Guild of America strike that could’ve started in July 2008 would’ve meant Michael Bay could not work on a massive blockbuster that needed all hands on deck. Bay created contingency plans in case this happened that, in an ideal world, would ensure animators could finish the movie even without his guiding hand. In retrospect, though, it’s staggering to consider how Revenge of the Fallen could’ve taken shape if Bay had gone on strike just a month into principal photography.

[Related: This Is Still the Best Transformers Action Scene (And It’s Not Even Close)]

Revenge of the Fallen Did Gain Momentum, But At What Cost?

Any way you look at it, that June 2009 release date was a massive anchor weighing down Revenge of the Fallen. Paramount’s insistence on a speedy turnaround time for a follow-up had put this tentpole in the crosshairs of countless external film industry problems threatening to jeopardize the production. Eventually, a DGA strike was avoided entirely, while the 2007-08 WGA strike was resolved on February 12, 2008. In the wake of these events, Revenge of the Fallen moved like a bullet towards its June 2008 start date for principal photography. Now, the writers and director could all be on the movie’s set.

However, rushing to avoid a strike left Revenge of the Fallen with a crumbling script achingly devoid of soul or coherency. Even by the standards of Transformers movie screenplays, Revenge of the Fallen is storytelling junk. The idea of this script being rushed to completion just before the WGA strike is totally believable while witnessing this stumbling concoction. While Revenge of the Fallen made an $800+ million worldwide fortune at the box office, Bay has openly expressed disdain for the film. While Transformers: Dark of the Moon was in production, Bay explicitly declared rushing to beat the WGA strike doomed Fallen with a subpar script.

Revenge of the Fallen’s superb box office haul proved Transformers was no fluke. These robots had a lot of longevity as box office draws. However, scrambling for a June 2009 release date nearly derailed the entire franchise before a frame of footage had been shot on Revenge of the Fallen. To boot, the artistic shortcomings of this installment still loom large over the entire saga’s reputation. The lewdest jokes and most caricatured characters from Revenge of the Fallen are branded in people’s brains as microcosms of the entire Transformers saga.

Looking back, it’s clear Revenge of the Fallen beat the odds and kept the Transformers franchise from perishing. After all, it takes sequels to become a franchise and Revenge of the Fallen was just that. However, simultaneously, its very existence doomed this series in other key ways that newer entries like Transformers One are only now beginning to rectify.