‘Transformers’: Two ‘Revamps’ Reportedly in the Works

Over the course of six movies, the Transformers franchise has spanned a number of time periods and locations. Now, it looks like the sprawling film series will be expanding even further. Variety reports that Paramount Pictures is looking to revamp the franchise, and it even has two movie scripts currently in development.

The first script is by James Vanderbilt, who’s penned Independence Day: Resurgence, White House Down, and the crime drama Zodiac. The second comes from Joby Harold, who wrote King Arthur: Legend of the Sword as well as Zack Snyder’s upcoming zombie/heist movie Army of the Dead.

At this point, there are no details about what the scripts are about, but sources indicate the studio is looking at them as an opportunity to develop multiple storylines within the franchise. No directors have been attached to either project, though it’s also likely that both projects will feature all-new casts.

Michael Bay, who first brought the robots in disguise to the big screen back in 2007, left the franchise 10 years later after the release of Transformers: The Last Night in 2017. That led to 2018’s Bumblebee, a Transformers spinoff that had a much lower budget and a smaller scope when compared to its five predecessors.

While that first quintet of movies has proven to be a huge hit with audiences, grossing roughly $4 billion together, Bumblebee proved to be a hit with both critics and audiences, and its retro-80s vibe endeared itself to new and existing fans. It seems that the studio is looking to ride on the spinoff’s success.

The first two films, Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, co-starred Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes, a high school girl with a penchant for fixing cars. While she was eventually fired from the franchise, the way she was “hypersexualized” on-screen would follow her for years to come.

“I think I had a genuine psychological breakdown where I wanted just nothing to do,” she told Entertainment Tonight back in September. “I didn’t want to be seen, I didn’t want to have to take a photo, do a magazine, walk a carpet, I didn’t want to be seen in public at all because the fear, and the belief, and the absolute certainty that I was going to be mocked, or spat at, or someone was going to yell at me, or people would stone me or savage me for just being out.”