It is no secret, Transformers: The Last Knight was really bad. It is a classic example of a franchise going too far. The Bumblebee stand-alone film was a breath of fresh air.
Now comes news that despite dismal reviews, the TF franchise engine will move forward.
According to longtime TF producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, although Bumblebee was supposed to soft reboot the franchise, the studio is not ready to abandon the main storyline just yet.
The Last Knight was director Michael Bay’s final directorial try at the franchise, and it was a film slotted to launch a new run of TF films. After the horrible box office run and critical panning, many thought the franchise might have to regroup.
In an interview this week with a Japanese film site Cinema (via Movieweb), Di Bonaventura confirmed the Bumblebee sequel and that another Transformers film is already in development.
This film will retain the continuity of the other TF films:
“We are already working on two projects and both have scripts under development. One is the latest in the main family series following the events of Transformers: The Last Knight and the other is a sequel to Bumblebee.
So, we are thinking of films where Optimus Prime and Bumblebee will be the buddies, but when Optimus and Bumblebee are the movies of the protagonists …
how human beings get involved in their drama In the first place, the size is different between human beings and
theirs …. It’s a worrying point (laughs).”
In a separate interview with Collider, Di Bonaventura spoke about the audience reception to Bumblebee, more notably complaints about the
“Several lessons have come out of this [Bumblebee]. One is that we have the freedom to tell almost any story. The other is that, how strongly the audience identified with the strength of character and emotion.
I know the next Transformers, our attempt anyway, is to sort of do a fusion of Bumblebee and the Bay movies…a little more Bayhem.
And a little bit more of the character falling in love within the emotional dynamic of the movie.
One of the things I want to do – and I hope we pull it off – is, we did it with Bumblebee because he’s so cute and he’s so accessible, but he can’t talk.
I think the more human we can make these characters, the more people are going to like them.”
