Paramount has big plans for the future of Transformers, with many fans already looking ahead to seeing what the next Transformers movie is. Michael Bay helped launch the Transformers franchise in 2007 with stars Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. Although Fox left after just two films, LaBeouf's Sam Witwicky remained the focus for the first trilogy.
Transformers entered a new era without LaBeouf with Transformers: Age of Extinction. Mark Wahlberg became the new face of the Transformers movies, and he returned to star in Transformers: The Last Knight. That proved to be the end of Michael Bay's time with the franchise, or so we thought.
2018 saw Bumblebee hit theaters with Hailee Steinfeld in the lead, followed by another prequel movie, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, with Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback. The franchise then moved into animation with Transformers One, with hopes of both live-action and animated franchises using the property.
Eight Transformers movies later of varying quality and success, Paramount is still keen on exploring more of the Autobot and Decepticon feud on the big screen. Several new films are in various stages of development to ensure audiences never have to go too long without seeing the Autobots roll out again.
The next Transformers movie is bringing Bay back into the fold. Nearly a decade after The Last Knight delivered a franchise low box office and saw the director split from the franchise he started, he's coming back to helm a new adventure for Paramount. The key for this one is that Steven Spielberg is taking on more of a hands-on producer role.
Paramount Pictures' co-chairs Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg reportedly courted Spielberg for a full year to get the sci-fi movie master back involved more directly. A script from Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman, It: Welcome to Derry) was commissioned, with Spielberg agreeing to a larger role after reading a draft. He then met with Bay about returning to the franchise, bringing the two biggest creatives from the 2007 original back together.
Plot details are not yet known about Bay and Spielberg's Transformers movie. It does not have a release date, nor does it have any cast members; it is expected that a new lead will be found rather than bringing back LaBeouf or Wahlberg's Cade Yeager. It will be set in the present day, though. All signs point to this being next up for the Transformers franchise, ensuring Paramount has a movie in production before 2029 and maintains the IP's rights.
Bay's work with Transformers could continue beyond Spielberg's film. It was first reported in 2025 that the director approached Paramount about coming back and that he was developing a Transformers movie of his own with writer Jordan VanDina (The Binge). The original reports said he could just produce the film, but Bay was also considering directing the mystery Transformers film.
No more details about the movie have come since then. If it is still in development, it certainly is not the priority for Bay now that he's directing Spielberg's film. But if everything goes smoothly with that one and Bay doesn't bring whatever idea he had for this movie into that one, Paramount could then give him free rein to move forward with this other pitch.
Paramount previously confirmed that Transformers 8 is in the works as part of a new trilogy that Transformers: Rise of the Beasts kicked off. Details on the eighth movie are scarce at the moment, including whether it will still happen.
It is not confirmed if Steven Caple Jr. will return to direct the film or if Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback's characters will return. Caple Jr. did confirm to ScreenRant in 2026 that he's still developing a Rise of the Beasts sequel, but he noted it was not up next for the franchise. At the time, he was referring to the Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover movie taking precedence.
Caple Jr. has spoken about the opportunity and said if he returns, he wants to also deal with additional Transformers factions on other planets. He said he wants to explore the origins more, and detail more about their creator, Primus. It will mark the inception of a new narrative direction for the franchise. Whether it happens will depend somewhat on how future Transformers movies perform.
Transformers 9 is also in development, wrapping up the new Transformers trilogy commenced by Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Like its immediate predecessor, there are no further details on what the upcoming Transformers movies are about or who will be involved. It is expected that the movie will expand the Beast Wars universe in some fashion.
This could include the threat Unicron poses after his story was left open in Rise of the Beasts. Paramount has not announced a Transformers 9 release date, but it is years away at best.
While the sequels to Transformers: Rise of the Beasts are not scrapped, there are already plans underway to make a different live-action Transformers movie. Blue Beetle director Ángel Manuel Soto revealed that he was approached by the studio to make another movie in the franchise, which was likely what Rise of the Beasts ended up being.
However, when Soto was uninterested in the existing script, he pitched a new idea (via Collider):
"I pitched them an idea. I read a script, I didn’t like it, and I pitched them a whole different idea, and they liked it, but then it was too late. So they told me, 'Yeah, we cannot do your idea, but we like your idea, so we want you to write the idea and then direct it.' So, we’ve been in that process, but the writers’ strike happened. [Laughs] It will be different, it will be different."
As of February 2024, the new live-action Transformers movie from Soto still seemed to be in development, with producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura confirming that they were still waiting to read the script. No updates have come since then. It has seemingly taken a backseat to Paramount developing Bay and Spielberg's movie, for now.
Josh Cooley, who directed the Transformers One animated film, has reportedly signed on to direct an upcoming live-action Transformers film. This came after he dropped the bad news that Paramount Animation was not interested in continuing his animated trilogy past the first movie.
Puck News reports that there are five Transformers movies in the works, and one of them is the Cooley live-action movie. That said, there is no word on what this film is going to be. Based on the critical success of Transformers One, he could be bringing something new to the table.
The first hint of this long-awaited live-action film crossover occurred at the end of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, when Anthony Ramos' Noah is offered a position at the G.I. Joe organization. It made it clear to everyone that Paramount's new goal was to unite the two Hasbro IPs at last, with reports later circulating that Chris Hemsworth was going to be the star.
However, Paramount confirmed in 2026 that the Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover movie is canceled. The decision came in light of the studio moving forward with a new G.I. Joe movie from Danny McBride. Bay and Spielberg's Transformers movie also moved forward shortly thereafter, making it clear the studio wants to fix each franchise on its own before uniting them.
As a result, if a Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover movie happens in the years ahead, it may not be the one set up by Rise of the Beasts. Ramos' character and Michael Kelly's Agent Burke probably won't be part of it. The crossover would be expected to unite the two new eras of the respective franchises.
Transformers One paved the way for not just one but many potential follow-ups. Unfortunately, the expected Transformers One sequel is no longer happening.
While Transformers One is one of the least expensive Transformers movies and earned some of the strongest reviews in the franchise, its box office results were less than expected. The underperformance caused Paramount Animation to back out of the trilogy, meaning we will never get to see what happens next in Optimus Prime and Megatron's war.
Paramount was at one point developing Bumblebee 2. The sequel to 2018's movie was reportedly in the works shortly after its release and positive reception. No writer was ever revealed for the project, although it was believed that Joby Harold's Transformers script was a Bumblebee sequel.
This turned out to be Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which makes it unclear if Bumblebee 2 is happening. A direct Bumblebee sequel featuring Hailee Steinfeld's Charlie seems unlikely based on what happened at the end of the last movie, which involved Bumblebee's canon-disrupting ending.
There was also a lingering question about the possibility of Transformers: The Last Knight getting a sequel. Michael Bay and Paramount had plans to make sixth and seventh installments of the franchise, but shortly after Transformers: The Last Knight's release, plans changed.
Paramount could be revisiting the idea now that Bay is back in the fold. This could even be part of one of the two installments Bay is currently known to be developing.
Despite the upcoming Transformers movies, none of them are confirmed to feature Shia LaBeouf or Mark Wahlberg. The initial decision not to leave Transformers came from LaBeouf, who felt that Sam's story was complete and had run its course. This didn't sit massively well with viewers, though.
Wahlberg confirmed at a 2017 charity screening of Transformers: The Last Knight that it was his final offering (via boston.com). At the time, the idea of non-Michael-Bay Transformers movies didn't appeal to him.
Now that the director is back, one can't completely rule out Bay recruiting one (or both) of his former leading men to have a role in what comes next. This will really come down to how Paramount wants to handle Transformers and if they want such strong connective tissue to Bay's original five movies.
Since neither lead was ever really going to upstage the giant, clattering Autobots and Decepticons, it was easy for the Transformers movies to go in a different direction when they were both done. Only time will tell whether those decisions stick or if they will be lured back should Bay or another filmmaker have ideas for Sam and Cade's lives after their last appearances.
Sources: Box Office Mojo, Collider, Puck News
Transformers is a multimedia franchise consisting of movies, TV Shows, video games, and comics. The franchise centers on a race of humanoid robots called the autobots who must protect Earth from the Decepticons. Some of the most popular characters include Megatron, Optimus Prime, and Bumblebee. In 2007, the first live-action movie in the franchise was released starring Shia Labeouf.
