Transformers are one of those properties that will probably be around forever in some way. Currently, its popularity is surging again thanks to a solid effort in television programming in recent years and live-action movies that feel like Saturday morning cartoons. Next up, we have Transformers One , the first animated film in the franchise to hit theaters in decades, so of course we’ll be hearing more about the Cybertronians’ big-screen future.
Collider recently spoke with veteran producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura about Hasbro and Paramount Pictures’ next steps on the big screen, talking about their most reliable moneymakers One of the machines. The full interview contains many generous answers and is well worth a read, but we’ve picked out the most interesting bits here and I have a few thoughts of my own.
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Following the strong enough financial performance of Beast Rise in the summer of 2023 (which was later boosted by strong domestic market numbers), rumors started to heat up, with Paramount confirming at CinemaCon 2024 that the next Transformers movie will be with G.I. Joe crossover, as teased at the end of the Anthony Ramos-led installment. Die-hard fans of the Hasbro IP and Paramount have been fantasizing about the idea for years, and the new, less serious Transformers timeline seemed like the perfect time to try it out. But there was one major problem: After two so-so movies, “G.I. Joe” never took off on the big screen the way “Transformers” did.
Paramount and Hasbro’s secret weapon? Doubling down on the agency of Transformers characters, being able to carry the emotional weight without too much human interference, and then figuring out how much Joe is too many Joes: “They’re not responding to humans, they’re not responding to human plots The reactions, but their dynamics, now have to be part of the story… The hardest thing with a lot of franchise movies is how many characters there are, and the more characters you try to manage, making a bunch The harder it is to get a really good character, you have to keep going, make it smaller, make it smaller. You’d think the rights holders and Paramount would have figured out long ago that fans are still mourning what happened in the ’80s. ’s cartoon robot deaths, which required a boost of trust in Transformers, but Michael Bay’s box office support supported the idea of going to “America, f**k Yeah” first and then to Cybertron.
With 2018’s oft-overlooked Bumblebee becoming both retro and more sincere, it feels like something has changed, and even if The Beast Rises doesn’t contain the most engaging script, the film manages to raise the stakes and scope, without losing sight of the fact that the robot is the center of the story. Now, Paramount is expecting similar success with Transformers One, a prequel set on Cybertron with an all-star voice cast. While the first trailer was a bit of a head-scratcher, the actual reviews and reactions to the film were notable, so the powers that be may have a winner on their hands. “Well, if it’s successful, we’re going to make a sequel and there’s going to be an animated version that will exist completely separate from the live-action movie that we’re doing,” Dee joked. Bonaventura.
Transformers One hits general release tomorrow, September 20, so families and Transformers fans have something to watch this weekend. In the meantime, while we await the release of the Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover movie, we’re also wondering about the current status of Transformers: Reanimated , the next game from Splash Damage.
