The Transformers franchise has been around since 2007, but following the first three movies, Transformers: Age of Extinction distanced itself from its predecessors. While many of the robots in disguise returned, the human cast was comprised of new characters. 2017's Transformers: The Last Knight won't repeating that creative choice completely, opting to bring back a few familiar faces. Josh Duhamel will return as Lieutenant Colonel William Lennox, and it's finally been confirmed that Tyrese Gibson will reprise fellow soldier Robert Epps in the movie.
Last night during the BET Awards, Gibson confirmed with ET Online that he'll be appearing in Transformers: The Last Knight next year. That, combined with him returning as Roman Pearce in Fast 8, mean that the actor will be putting "a lot of energy out there in the universe" come next year. He had previously mentioned how he would like to participate in the fifth Transformers movie, but now his involvement is official. Along with Duhamel, Gibson's Transformers: The Last Knight costars include Mark Wahlberg, Isabela Moner, Jerrod Carmichael, Mitch Pileggi, Laura Haddock and Anthony Hopkins.
In addition to the confirmation, Gibson also posted this picture of him with director Michael Bay on Instagram earlier today, saying that 2017 "got even more interesting."
Robert Epps was one of the many major characters introduced in Transformers, and he continued to play a supporting role in Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon. In the first movie, he, William Lennox and several others survived an attack from a Decepticon in Qatar, and after making their way back to the United States, they eventually joined forces with Sam Witwicky, Mikaela Banes and the Autobots. By the second movie, he earned a promotion and joined NEST (Non-biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty). In the third movie, he had retired from the military life, instead working with some of the Autobots on the spaceship Xanthium at a NASA launch site, but of course, he used his military skills once again to help out the benevolent robots when the world was in danger...again.
It's still unclear whether Epps has had any involvement with the Autobots since Dark of the Moon, but it will be interesting to see how he gets involved in Transformers: The Last Knight's chaotic events after sitting out the last adventure. It's also a safe bet that he and Lennox will share a few, if not many, scenes together given how close they are. Separating them just wouldn't be right.
Having already shot some scenes in Cuba and currently in the middle of principal photography in Detroit and London, Transformers: The Last Knight will arrive in theaters on June 23, 2017.
