I was among a group of journalists invited to watch a day of filming on the Transformers: The Last Knight set in August, where we learned a ton about the film's story and characters. But another topic that kept coming up was the long rumored Hasbro shared cinematic universe. While no one on set seemed interested in confirming any sort of crossover between Transformers and other properties, many were happy to share their candid thoughts about the future of the Transformers franchise, including the Bumblebee spinoff.
Shared universes have been all the rage lately and there has been intense speculation that the Transformers universe is ripe for a merger with the G.I. Joe film universe and other Hasbro properties including M.A.S.K., Micronauts and the vintage toy turned comic book character ROM: Space Knight. And yet when pressed director Michael Bay refused to confirm any involvement. When asked whether he would ever consider expanding his Transformers universe to include, say, a nod to the G.I. Joe series starring Dwayne Johnson, Bay dodged, “Yeah, that could be. I mean, I know where you're going with that.” Not exactly solid intel, though interestingly he admitted he had at least thought about it, saying, “No, I don't know. I thought about that and I'm like, I don't know.” So… there you have it?
Bumblebee's new look for Transformers: The Last Knight.
In addition to lead writer Akiva Goldsman (The Dark Tower, I Am Legend, I, Robot), the writers room assembled for future Transformers installments reportedly includes Christina Hodson, Lindsey Beer, Andrew Barrer & Gabriel Ferrari (Ant-Man), Art Marcum & Matt Holloway (Iron Man), Zak Penn (the upcoming Ready Player One), Jeff Pinkner (The Dark Tower, Amazing Spider-Man 2) and others. The group has been hard at work building from a mythology provided by Hasbro in the form of a comprehensive Transformers sourcebook.
Said Bay, “Really smart people came up with great ideas. [Steven] Spielberg and I latched on to a couple ideas that are great for spinoffs, there's a great historical thing. As I told Paramount, we were doing one movie, then the next movie, then the next movie, it's hard. We need a Bible where we can start really taking what we've done.”
Transformers: The Last Knight director Michael Bay talks shop with a bunch of nerds.
Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura talked more about the Transformers bible: “Hasbro put together sort of a bible, if you would, of all the mythologies that have been put forward, and they put it into one thing, and some of the comic book doesn't fit exactly with the TV show and the movie. So you had to sort of -- there were a few rough edges we had to round off, but you know, now with a fifth movie coming, there's a lot of mythology that we've established as well. So what we did was really built all three of the things into one very large document -- very large world.”
When asked if he would be up for another Transformers film, Bay responded, “You don't ever ask someone that when they're dog tired, lost like eight pounds running around. I like doing a small one and then a big one. It's fun doing a big one but I like small ones too. I liked 13 Hours and Pain & Gain as well. They're fun.”
Regarding the Bumblebee standalone movie, set for release in 2018, Bay said, “I would be very involved but we've got someone just starting work on the script right now. Steven [Spielberg] is involved too but he's shooting [something else] too.” Di Bonaventura confirmed previous reports that the Bumblebee spinoff is being written by Christina Hodson, who wrote this year’s Shut In and has been linked to a possible Harley Quinn project in addition to future Transformers movies.
Di Bonaventura added that there wouldn’t be many, if any, other Transformers in the Bumblebee movie. “It's Bumblebee's story. I don't think you'll see a lot more in it. We'll see as it evolves.” Di Bonaventura said he hoped there would be additional spinoffs in the future, and that other time periods, such as ancient Rome, might be a good fit.
Bay is getting into virtual reality these days, saying he was actively working with IMAX theaters to create a brand new Transformers VR experience by May 2017. Speaking about the partnership with IMAX, he said, “They're gonna build pods in theaters around the world. There are all these massive theaters, but they don't use every theater. So they'll build like 30 pods.” Details were sparse but he talked about the presence of the symbiotic Transformers known as headmasters in the VR experience: “What's sort of fun about that is the size. You've got little ones. And we got this great character called Cogman who's a psychopath. He's a proper, like, butler. He's [Anthony Hopkins’ character Sir Edmound] Burton's -- like, he's a Headmaster. So it goes back to the comics. They kind of rip off heads and they become that, you know. So he's this proper, great looking sociopath. You know what I mean? He's a psycho. But he's very polite.” It was unclear if the Headmasters would show up in Transformers: The Last Knight, but given the mention of Anthony Hopkins’ character Burton it seems at least possible.
Di Bonaventura explained that the future of the direct Transformers sequels isn’t set in stone. “Actually, we have outlines, and I think one of the things was we did not want to rush to start those scripts, because we felt like -- and it turns out we were right -- that [Transformers: The Last Knight] was going to evolve.”
Transformers: The Last Knight opens June 23, 2017. The Bumblebee standalone film is slated for June 8, 2018. Transformers 6 is scheduled for June 28, 2019. Check back later today for more from the set of Transformers: The Last Knight.
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