Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura has offered a few thoughts on Transformers’ future beyond the upcoming animated prequel, Transformers One.
From a franchise management standpoint, Paramount has done a solid job stewarding the Transformers films as they approach their third decade as a cinema series. Critical responses haven’t always been kind, but each time the series looks like stalling the studio manages to find a way to inject new life into it.
Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts (2023) was the second in a series of live-action prequel movies that did okay business, falling short of the performance of Bumblebee, its 2018 predecessor. A new direction was thus called for, and first up, we’re getting a discrete animated prequel movie called Transformers One, arriving in cinemas next month.
Meanwhile, the live action series is continuing the prequel films, but giving the whole endeavour a shot in the arm by introducing Paramount and Hasbro’s GI Joe franchise into the mix. Back in May, Chris Hemsworth was reported to be in talks to star in that project.
Long-time series producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura has been chatting about the series’ future, offering his thoughts on what needs to happen to ensure its ongoing success.
On the subject of Transformers One, he’s revealed that naturally, a sequel is already in the works. “Well, we’re going, again, subject to success,” di Bonaventura told Collider. “We’re going to do a sequel to this [Transformers One], and there will be an animated version, and it will exist completely separately to whatever we do live-action.”
As far as live action goes, the producer talked a little about getting the balance right between the two franchises, adding, “We need to do more now from the robot point of view in the live-action because that’s the only way you’re really going to get inside them. Instead of them reacting to humans or reacting to the human plot, what is their drive, has to be part of that story now.”
Given that some pretty great comic books exist that crossover Transformers with GI Joe, we’re remaining cautiously optimistic here. Self-contained seems like the way to go, but let’s see what Hasbro has to say about that given that the more characters appear, the more toys they get to sell. We’ll bring you more on these projects when we hear anything.
