Josh Cooley, the director of Toy Story 4, is teaming up with Paramount Studios to bring a new, animated prequel to the Transformers franchise, the seventh entry in the series. The name of the film has not yet been announced, but it’s a good guess that t will come before 2018’s Bumblebee, the sixth movie of the franchise and its first prequel.
The screenwriters for this project are writing duo Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari, who previously wrote the screenplay for Ant-Man and the Wasp. Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian have been hired to produce.
This is a return to form for Transformers, which began as an iconic 1980’s cartoon series adapted from a Japanese line of toys. The franchise has since seen several animated tv shows and movies over the years, including the quintet of live action movies directed by Michael Bay, and the aforementioned Bumblebee, directed by Travis Knight. The films have seen a long line of notable voice actors, including Hugo Weaving, John Goodman, Steve Buschemi, and the late Leonard Nimoy, but the most recognizable voice is Peter Cullen, who reprised his role as Autobot leader Optimus Prime from the animated series.
Cullen will most likely return to play Optimus Prime, and it’s a good bet that voice actor Frank Welker will also reprise his role as Decipticon antagonist Megatron. But at the moment, voice talent for the new film is currently unknown.