The Transformers franchise needs a shakeup. And by most accounts, that’s what’s happening. We’ve covered the Writers Room mentality employed by Paramount to try and inject creativity into the stagnant series, which has in turn led to the announcement of the next three Transformers movies. But they might not be a standalone trilogy, as you’d automatically assume. We hear Transformers 6 might be very different.
Following Transformers: Age of Extinction, the Transformers films appeared to be in limbo. The movie made a fortune (as these movies tend to do), but the story laid out in Extinction didn’t really hook anyone. We know that Michael Bay is coming back to direct Transformers 5, but the sixth movie in the franchise, according to Hasbro (via MovieWeb) is going to be a spinoff movie focused on Bumblebee. In a release issued during the annual Hasbro toy fair, the company revealed:
On June 8, 2018, a new film is being developed which will tell the never before heard story of Bumblebee, one of the most beloved characters from Hasbro's Transformers universe.
There’s no mention of who would direct this installment in the Transformers series, though I think you could place a sizable bet on “Anyone but Michael Bay.” When the director confirmed his return for Transformers 5, he didn’t necessarily make it sound like he was dying to take on the gig. Even Bay realizes that this series needs an injection of fresh blood, and I don’t believe that Michael Bay is the only filmmaker capable of directing Transformers stories. Let’s get some new voices in this franchise!
A Bumblebee story makes sense. The character was popular in the Michael Bay movies, teaming with human star Shai LaBeouf on various adventures. But the Bumblebee movie doesn’t need to handcuff Bumblebee to an Earthbound story. One of the ways that the Transformers series can evolve is to embrace the sci-fi aspects of the franchise and take these characters off our planet. If this ends up being an origin story for Bumblebee, maybe we can explore his early relationships with Optimus Prime and the Autobots… before they came to Earth.
Now, we have to wait for the rest of the dominoes to fall. We need to see who will direct this Bumblebee story in Transformers 6, and who will star in it (if there will be human stars, at all). I think this can be an exciting new step in a different direction for the Transformers saga. Do you agree?
