The Transformers Franchise Is Revving Up Its Engines Again
And Steven Spielberg is back in the driver’s seat.
It’s hard to get excited about any updates from the Transformers camp lately. The passing of Peter Cullen, who made Autobots leader Optimus Prime feel more alive than ever, still feels utterly shocking. That parent company, Paramount-Skydance, is in the midst of an acquisition that literally nobody wanted and is likewise casting a shadow over any developments. Still, the show must go on: the ink hasn’t even dried on the Paramount-Skydance-Warner merger, but the studio is apparently going full steam ahead on the next chapter of the Transformers saga.
Fortunately, longtime producer Steven Spielberg will be assisting in a much larger capacity than he might have previously. The filmmaker has been involved with literally every live-action Transformers film since Michael Bay revitalized the franchise back in 2007; as the newly minted Skydance works to bring the saga into a new era, he’s taking on more creative responsibility. Variety reports that Spielberg will “oversee all creative aspects of the live-action film” alongside producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. Their goal: to bring the Transformers saga back to the feel of the first few Bay-directed films, which focused more on the rock ‘em, sock ‘em thrill of massive robot alien brawls and less on convoluted worldbuilding.
Steven Spielberg will help things transform and roll out.
This upcoming film will be the eighth in Skydance’s Transformers saga, and though it’s not yet clear if it will reset the timeline, it’d make a lot of sense to wipe the slate clean. Cullen left huge shoes to fill as Optimus, but a new actor could help the franchise start fresh. It’d also behoove the studio to get as far away from Rise of the Beasts — its last live-action film, which put all its chips on a Transformers-G.I. Joe crossover that never bore fruit — as possible. Per Variety, this film will be set in the present day, and screenwriter Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman, It: Welcome to Derry) is currently working on the script. Kinda smells like a reboot!
Spielberg’s role in Transformers 8 begins and ends at “producer,” and the director’s chair remains empty after Michael Bay departed the franchise in 2017. Anything is possible in terms of a return — but the Transformers need fresh blood if they’re going to break the mold of monotony. Spielberg wants to reclaim the magic of Bay’s first few films, but ideally, he’ll also look back even further, to the animated The Transformers: The Movie, for inspiration. The film returned to theaters earlier this year for its 40th anniversary, effectively reminding a lot of fans that Transformers needn’t be edgy, leery, or schlocky to tell a grown-up story. The franchise could stand to take a page from its playbook in its attempts to move forward. The past has more to offer than nostalgia: it could also hold the key to making this franchise more than a guilty pleasure.
