Every time he thinks that he's out... they PULL him back in! Not that I'm confusing the Transformers franchise with the esteemed Godfather trilogy, but this is the sentiment Michael Bay recently expressed on the eve(ish) of the release of his fifth Transformers movie, The Last Knight. You see, Bay always says the one that he's working on is his last. And as time has told, it never has been. Now, the director's saying once again:
It's bittersweet for me. With every Transformers film, I've said it would be my last. I see the 120 million fans around the world who see these movies, the huge theme park lines to the ride and the amazing Make- A-Wish kids who visit my sets, and it somehow keeps drawing me back. I love doing these movies. This film was especially fun to shoot. But, this time might really be it. So I'm blowing this one out.
Michael Bay posted this statement to his official Web site, primarily because we expect Transformers: The Last Knight to show off new footage with a splashy Super Bowl spot on Sunday. Heck, the trailer might even drop sooner than the Big Game. Paramount's own Ghost in the Shell surprised fans with an early tease, so we can hope that Bay pulls a similar magic trick.
In the statement, Michael Bay also spoke candidly about the Writers' Room that Paramount pulled together to shape the history, and the future, of the Transformers franchise. For those who don't recall, the studio gathered a team of creative types to map out a strategy for multiple Transformers movies, which might also include spinoffs for popular Transformers characters like Bumblebee. Of the room, Michael Bay noted:
We put together a writers' room designed to greatly expand our mythology, integrating our films in a whole new way. Every movie will interlink. ... Through the summer of 2015, they worked in a huge space on the Paramount lot, surrounded by over 10,000 concept images from the franchise's history: the movies, cartoons, and comic books. They had a life-size Bumblebee, a Megatron head, and many other props staring them down. We pulled from everything. It was a fan's dream room. We brought in Transformers historians from Hasbro to educate them on where Transformers has been -- so that they could figure out where it can go. I can safely say that there's never been a Transformers film with the huge visual scope and expansive mythology as this movie, The Last Knight.
That scope was hinted at in the movie's first trailer, which I will drop on the next page. But before then, do we really think this will be Bay's last Transformers movie? I doubt it. The filmmaker is finding time to work in side projects like Pain & Gain and 13 Hours, while returning to the Transformers series when possible. If he doesn't direct the NEXT film (and I think the series could benefit from fresh blood), he'll likely return for some Transformers movie down the line.
Transformers: The Last Knight opens in theaters on June 23, 2017. Click to the next page to see the film's full trailer.
