Paramount confirmed today that one of the three Transformers movies announced last week is actually a spinoff centering on Bumblebee.
Back on Feb. 12, Paramount announced the release dates for Transformers 5, 6 and 7. But in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount chairman/CEO Brad Grey said that Transformers 6 is actually a film that will star the yellow Transformer.
“There are characters in the Transformers universe that can be and should be made into their own movies,” Grey told THR. “We will make the first movie with Michael [Bay] and go right into a Bumblebee movie, which will be at a lower cost.”
The four Transformers movies have grossed a combined $4.8 billion worldwide, with all films directed by Michael Bay. The director has said that the fifth film will be his last, though.
Transformers 5 is set for June 23, 2017 and the Bumblebee movie will follow on June 8, 2018. Transformers 7 will also be a stand-alone and comes out on June 28, 2019.
The move comes as every studio in Hollywood clearly needs a cinematic universe to exist. 20th Century Fox has the X-Men, which got a serious shot in the arm this weekend with Deadpool. Disney has Star Wars and the Marvel Studios universe, while Universal is building the Monsters Universe. Warner Bros. has DC Comics movies. Paramount needs one too and is clearly hoping that Transformers will be it.
Screenshot from YouTube video.