Being in my late 30s, I grew up with the Transformers in the 1980s. I had many of the Generation 1 (G1) toys and remember bringing them over to my best friend's house, who lived two houses over. We would have epic Autobot vs. Decepticon battles and watch the new episodes on television before getting on the bus to go to elementary school. We even saw Transformers: The Movie in the theater in 1986. For me, those were Golden Years of the Transformers and many close to my age hold the G1 Transformers near and dear to their heart.
Then the big announcement came that a live action Transformers movie would be released in 2007. Original fans, like me, hoped for a nostalgic reference back to their childhood and while there were tiny bits and pieces of that in the first live action movie, it was definitely changed for a new generation of kids and fans.
Fast-forward to present day and the Transformers franchise is a cash-making juggernaut (over $3.7 billion worldwide) with a minimally engaging story arc. But it makes a ton of money and it seems like the franchise will continue to move forward as is instead of rebooting it as an 80s period piece movie, which The Daily SuperHero wrote an Act I pitch for several months ago (click here to read that).
Hasbro Studios president Stephen J. Davis spoke about the future of the Transformers franchise at MIPJunior at Cannes (via SHH).
“Well, you’re going to see a new Transformers movie coming from Hasbro and Paramount and Michael Bay and our other partners. In fact, we just finished, as some of you may have read, just an incredible experience. We decided that we wanted to plot out the next 10 years of the Transformers franchise, so we got together in a room over a three-month period of time. Nine of some of the most creative writers I have ever worked with, shepherded by Akiva Goldsman, who many of you may know won an Academy Award for A Beautiful Mind and written a bunch of great movies. And they plotted out the next 10 years of Transformers. Similarly, we are doing the same in television and in digital. So stay tuned, Transformers 5 is on its way, and 6 and 7 and 8.”
Before you start moaning and groaning about all these new Transformers movies, please note that no real details have been revealed about any of them... yet. Expect that ANT-MAN writers Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari are writing an animated Transformers prequel movie that will take place on Cybertron and will reportedly be canon in the Transformers franchise movie universe.
[Sad Optimus image source]