Bringing an end to the whole ‘will he, won’t he?’ saga once and for all (?), Michael Bay has gone on record once again to declare that Transformers: The Last Knight, the fifth installment in Paramount’s mega-franchise, will herald his final dalliance with those robots in disguise.
One week out from the theatrical launch of The Last Knight, Fandango caught up with the illustrious director to discuss the future of Paramount’s juggernaut – a franchise that will soon make room for period-set spinoffs and animated prequels – the long-gestating Bad Boys 3, and his desire to work on films beyond the Transformers universe.
It was here that Bay reaffirmed his fifth Transformers movie will indeed be his last, and it seems he’ll be leaving through the exit door alongside series star Mark Wahlberg. While appearing on The Graham Norton Show (h/t Digital Spy), Wahlberg, who has played Cade Yeager since the Age of Extinction, stated that, “it’s the last one so I get my life back!”
That’s not strictly speaking true, however, as Paramount has already nailed down plans for the as-yet-untitled Transformers 6, which has surely been casting the net in search of a replacement director now that Michael Bay’s exit has been confirmed.
Here’s that quote from the director himself:
“These movies that I’ve done, they are massive movies. They take a lot out of you,” Bay said when we asked if he was finally — for real, this time — stepping away from the Transformers franchise. “I’ve done it enough, and I’ve had a great time doing it. I’m going out with a bang on this one, and I feel like you gotta go out while you’re ahead, you know. I think I’ve had a good run, and I’ve got a lot of other movies I want to do.”
It seems like a more adult-oriented film is now on the cards for Bay, which would act as a welcome tonic to his tenure in the Transformers series – think Pain & Gain or Benghazi thriller 13 Hours.
I just read a very bloody hitman movie that was a page turner. That seems like a fun one to do. I love doing 13 Hours, I love doing Pain & Gain — I think it’ll be something more serious and more adult, I guess.
Troubling box office forecasts aside, can Michael Bay go out on a high note? We’ll find out when Transformers: The Last Knight screeches into theatres on June 21st.
