If you’re a fan of the classic animated “Transformers” series and ‘80s film, you probably aren’t a huge fan of the recent film series from director Michael Bay. And while that series started off as a massive hit, the fifth film, “Transformers: The Last Knight” was the lowest grossing entry to date, and signaled an end to this franchise. Then, last year, “Bumblebee” came along and re-invigorated the franchise for many classic fans (and new ones), leading to hope that those years of Michael Bay monstrosities were behind us. Well, it appears that’s not the case, completely.
“Transformers” producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura recently spoke about the future of the robots in disguise franchise and said that not only is the studio developing a sequel to “Bumblebee,” but there is also development on the sixth “Transformers” film, following the events of the terrible ‘Last Knight.’
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“One is the latest in the main family series following the events of ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ and the other is a sequel to ‘Bumblebee,’” said Di Bonaventura in an interview with Cinema (via CBR). “So, we are thinking of films where Optimus Prime and Bumblebee will be the buddies, but when Optimus and Bumblebee are the movies of the protagonists … how human beings get involved in their drama In the first place, the size is different between human beings and theirs …. It’s a worrying point (laughs).”
However, when speaking to Collider, the producer also talked a bit more about the tone of the upcoming sequels, especially considering the success of ‘Bumblebee.” It appears that fans might be getting an injection of Bayhem.
“Several lessons have come out of [‘Bumblebee’],” said the producer. “One is that we have the freedom to tell almost any story. The other is that, how strongly the audience identified with the strength of character and emotion.”
He continued, “I know the next ‘Transformer,’ our attempt anyway, is to sort of do a fusion of ‘Bumblebee’ and the Bay movies…a little more Bayhem. And a little bit more of the character falling in love within the emotional dynamic of the movie. One of the things I want to do—and I hope we pull it off—is, we did it with ‘Bumblebee’ because he’s so cute and he’s so accessible, but he can’t talk. I think the more human we can make these characters, the more people are going to like them.”
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Reading these comments, you can’t help but wince a little, especially if you’re hoping that Paramount and the producers learned their lesson with the failure of ‘Last Knight’ and the success of “Bumblebee.” What made the latter so much better than the former is the distinct lack of Bayhem. Now, obviously, this doesn’t mean that Michael Bay is involved in any meaningful way, so perhaps this is just producer-speak for wanting to add some action to the heart that was found in “Bumblebee.”
But honestly, any sequel to ‘Last Knight’ is a terrible idea. And changing the formula of “Bumblebee” to make it resemble that franchise is a worse idea. Let’s just hope this is all talk.
