The writers’ room led by Michael Bay and Akiva Goldsman for the continuing Transformers franchise has now brought on several well-known sci-fi writers for both the next Transformers sequel as well as its spinoff. The negotiations only recently finished and the addition of the four men to the writers’ room will enable Paramount and Hasbro to really build up the Transformers franchise.

Joining the writers’ room will be Robert Kirkman, creator of AMC’s The Walking Dead; Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, writers for the original Iron Man; Pacific Rim 2 writer Zak Penn; and finally Jeff Pinkner, known for his work on Amazing Spider-Man 2 and ABC’s Lost. All four men have great science fiction chops and will bring a lot of new blood as they work alongside Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg, and writers’ room leader Akiva Goldsman.

Bay and Goldsman’s aim to put together a writers’ room for the Transformers franchise reflects the major studios’ continued emphasis on bringing viewers back to the movies for so-called tentpole franchises. Transformers is one of Paramount’s highest-grossing films, with the most recent movie Age of Extinction garnering almost $1.1 billion and becoming the highest-grossing movie ever in China. The writers’ room seems to be following the trend of other major science fiction franchises, including Disney and Marvel’s cinematic universe and even James Cameron’s Avatar series.

The fifth Transformers  movie is scheduled for release in 2017.