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Bumblebee Sequel Will Have More of Michael Bay’s Transformers Action
The sequel to last year's Bumblebee will apparently have more of Michael Bay's Transformers action. Ever since the toy line and animated TV show's creation in the 1980s, the Transformers brand has proven to be a very popular, and often lucrative, franchise. There has been an abundance of movies and TV shows revolving around the Autobots and Decepticons, but in the last decade, the live-action Transformers movies have been at the center of attention.
In 2007, Paramount released Transformers, which was directed by Bay and starred Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. For the next four sequels, the stars of the movies came and went, but Bay was always a constant in the series. All that changed last year when the first Transformers spin-off focusing on the character Bumblebee was directed by Travis Knight. Bay still acted as a producer for the film, but Bumblebee was said to focus more on bringing heart and humor to Transformers, instead of simply relying on action sequences and big explosions. That certainly turned out to be the case with Bumblebee, however, the formula for future Transformers movies could slightly change.
When Collider spoke with longtime Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, he mentioned that the Bumblebee sequel will have a bit more of the Bay-esque action. Taking into consideration the critiques the film got from some audiences, Bonaventura explained that going forward, Paramount will try to incorporate more big action sequences while also creating an emotional story between the different characters. Bonaventura specifically said that, "I know the next Transformer, 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".
While Bumblebee received mostly positive reviews, the film didn't make as much money as some of the previous Transformers films. Bumblebee was still a box office success, but Paramount previously passed the $1 billion mark with some of their Transformers movies. Bumblebee passed $400 million at the worldwide box office, which seems like a lot, but that is still the lowest grossing addition to the franchise. Even though the film didn't make as much money as other Transformers films, Bumblebee still did well enough to warrant a sequel.
The Transformers movies have always been a very profitable franchise for Paramount, but many of the sequels didn't do well with critics. Many people critiqued Bay's films for relying on explosions and over the top action to wow audiences, which most of the time took away from the character development and overall story. Including a bit more "Bayhem" in Bumblebee 2 isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as Paramount doesn't forget what made Bumblebee popular with fans and critics alike. Details surrounding the Bumblebee sequel are slim right now, but this at least gives fans an idea of what could be in store for the Transformers series in the next few years.
