Are you sick of Michael Bay’s Transformers movies? Then you best stay away from the cinema for the next few years, because this summer’s Age of Extinction won’t be the last film featuring the Robots in Disguise. In fact, there will be at least two more. With $2.6 billion in box office earnings from the first trilogy alone, it should come as no surprise that Hasbro and Paramount are interested in more Autobot vs. Decepticon action. Bay, on the other hand, isn’t sure if he’ll return for future films, as revealed during a recent interview with EW:
“It’s kind of like a new Transformers. We had three, the first trilogy, and this is going to be the next one… Yeah, it’s the first of a new trilogy. I’m not necessarily sure that I’m doing [the others], but that’s what it’s meant for.”
We’ve known for a while now that Age of Extinction will serve as a quasi-reboot of the series, paying its respects to the continuity that came before while paving the way for more stories that are separate from Shia LeBeouf’s three adventures. Bay is accomplishing this by introducing a new trio of stars, including Mark Wahlberg, while telling a story about how humanity has reacted to the cataclysmic events of Dark of the Moon.
Wahlberg himself chimed in on where the story picks up, saying:
“[The government] wants to wipe out all the Transformers, all the Autobots. Optimus has lost all faith in humankind, and I’m trying to convince him there is still good in the world and we need to work together.”
According to Bay, the leader of the Autobots has “done good for Earth, and he’s been fucked over.” As a result, that means we’ll get to see “angry Optimus Prime.”
Not only will we see a new group of humans, but we’ll be seeing new Transformers as well, as most of the old Autobots are gone and new machines will be introduced, including a bounty hunter named Lockdown and the fan-favorite Dinobots. How these new Transformers fit into the fold will be teased in Age of Extinction, but Bay seems to be adopting the franchise-building mentality and will only tease their backstories for further explanation down the road.
“I like to keep things very much in the dark. But yes, you’ll understand why they’re there when you see the movie. If you think I’m supposed to give away a lot of story points? No way! Keep it secret.
Lockdown is an interesting character. He travels the galaxy, he works for somebody else. And he’s here for one person, one alien, and then he’s out of here. So he doesn’t really want to take sides. The cause and balance of the galaxy is kind of messed up when different species play with different species. And that opens up a whole other gigantic world for Transformers.
Lockdown’s ship has a lot of meaning that can go into other movies. There’s a lot of backstory about that ship that’s not laid out here. You’re going to see a few things where you’re like ‘What is that? And what is that?’ And you’re going to see a couple shots like, ‘Wait a minute, who are they?’ But we don’t answer those questions.”
If there’s one thing the moviegoing public likes, it’s unanswered questions… right? Hopefully Bay doesn’t leave too many threads dangling when all is said and done. In any case, Transformers: Age of Extinction looks like it definitely raises the high bar set by the first trilogy, so the idea of opening up “a whole other world” for the films to explore is pretty exciting.
Tell us, are you excited to hear that we’ll get (at least) two more Transformers films to make a new trilogy? Sound off below!