The Transformers franchise currently consists of five movies, with a Bumblebee spin-off slated for release later this year. While the majority of the films in the series have been very successful, the later entries have been seeing some diminishing returns, finally coming to a head in Transformers: The Last Knight, which underperformed (compared to the rest of the series) at the box office. This gave some credence to the rumor that the franchise was in for a reboot following Bumblebee, but now Hasbro is stepping in to let people know not to believe everything they read. According to the Hasbro Brand Manager...
Don't believe what you hear, don't worry.
Not exactly the most illuminating statement in the world, but Hasbro clearly doesn't want people to believe that there's a reboot on the way right now. Recently, a report dropped claiming that Hasbro said at the Toy Fair 2018 during its investor preview that the Transformers franchise would be rebooted following the release of Bumblebee and that Hasbro would have more creative control over the series moving forward. In addition, Transformers 6 -- which was originally scheduled to release June 18, 2019 -- was removed from Paramount-Hasbro's film slate. A grain of salt was still necessary, but considering the lackluster performance of the sequels both critically and commercially, it was a believable report.
Well, Hasbro's now telling you not to believe it and not to worry. According to Bleeding Cool, someone at Toy Fairs' three-hour Hasbro presentation asked about the new reports that Transformers was being rebooted. The Transformers brand manager said "don't believe what you hear," and left it at that. For what it's worth, Transformers: The Last Knight did set up another sequel, and a writers room was established to develop more films, but it's possible that Paramount and Hasbro are cooling it on the franchise for the time being.
So, is Transformers being rebooted? It's tough to say at this point. Hasbro certainly can't go around saying there's a reboot when there's still one more Transformers movie on the schedule. Otherwise, why should people go see it if it doesn't even matter to the series? We'll have to keep waiting for more updates in the future, but Hasbro does seem to be increasing its movie output. The toy company has movies for G.I. Joe, Micronauts, and Dungeons & Dragons in the works, as well as an untitled event film with Paramount. How exactly Transformers will play into that is anyone's guess at the moment.
There's bound to be more updates surrounding the fate of Transformers so stick with CinemaBlend and we'll keep you updated with more information as soon as it becomes available. For all movies hitting theaters in the near future, check out our 2018 movie release guide.
