Ever since the explosion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the film industry, almost all of the major studios have been doing whatever possible to create their own version of that. Universal is doing a shared monster universe to include reboot films like The Mummy and The Wolf Man, Warner Bros. is currently in the beginnings of a DC Comics universe, and now Paramount is doing the same with the massively successful Transformers franchise.
The newly announced films, Transformers 5, a spinoff that will focus solely on Bumblebee, and Transformers 6, are slated for 2017, 2018 and 2019. Director Michael Bay will again return for the next one but will probably not continue with the rest because of their speedy release dates. And although he will still helm the project, there is a huge new team of writers to handle this potentially gigantic universe that the main films as well as spinoffs could expand into.
Mark Wahlberg, star of the previous entry, Age of Extinction, will return for the fifth film, which is the beginning of a new storyline that will continue at least through the sixth and seventh central films. With this new batch of writers- slated to include Steven S. DeKnight (Netflix’s Daredevil) and Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead)- there is plenty of new ground and success that this series could find. Even though there has been great financial success through the first four, critics have especially not been kind to the last three, and so this could be a way for the series to get gain more weight in Hollywood.
And like those of its kind, the Transformers universe seems to be following the trend of a releasing at least one film each year. Paramount has stated that there are sequel planned out until 2025 but there’s no confirmation as to the release dates past 2019. Since Bay won’t return (more than likely) after 5, it will be interesting to see what other filmmakers bring to the table.
Transformers 5 will hit theaters on June 23th, 2017, the Bumblebee Spinoff on June 8th, 2018, and Transformers 6 on June 28th, 2019.