Paramount teased “More Transformers” at CinemaCon back in April without offering a single detail, and now we know at least part of what the studio meant.
Jason Fuchs, the co-creator and co-showrunner of HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry, has been tapped to write an untitled Transformers movie for Paramount and Hasbro, according to an exclusive report from TheWrap.
Plot details are being kept under wraps, but per the report, the new film will continue the story following 2023’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which ended with Anthony Ramos’ Noah Diaz getting recruited by G.I. Joe in the post-credits scene.
In a fitting bit of timing, Rise of the Beasts is about to become free to watch for the first time: Paramount announced the film makes its exclusive free streaming premiere on Pluto TV beginning July 1 (more on that below).
Familiar names behind the scenes
The producing lineup is the usual Transformers brain trust: Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Mark Vahradian, Michael Bay, Tom DeSanto, and Don Murphy will produce, with Steven Spielberg and Hasbro Entertainment executive producing.
Fuchs’ script is one of multiple Transformers projects in development at Paramount, as Jurassic World writer Derek Connolly is separately penning the long-gestating Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover movie based on the Hasbro toy lines.
How the two projects relate to each other — if at all — remains unclear, though the Rise of the Beasts post-credits scene certainly seems to be the connective tissue.
Fuchs has quietly become one of the busier writers in Hollywood. In addition to co-creating It: Welcome to Derry, his screenwriting credits include Wonder Woman, and his films have grossed over $1.9 billion worldwide. He’s also currently writing the live-action My Hero Academia movie for Netflix and Legendary and just launched his own company, Five Ten Productions.
A franchise in need of a win — and it’s not alone
The hire comes at a low point for the brand. The Michael Bay era was a box office juggernaut, with Dark of the Moon and Age of Extinction both crossing $1 billion worldwide, but the franchise has been sliding ever since: The Last Knight dropped to $605 million in 2017, Bumblebee earned $471 million in 2018, and Rise of the Beasts managed just $429 million worldwide in 2023. Then came 2024’s animated Transformers One, which — despite strong reviews — grossed only $128.7 million worldwide, the lowest total in franchise history.
Paramount should also take note that 80s nostalgia hasn’t exactly been printing money at the box office lately. Masters of the Universe is falling well short of its estimated $400 million break-even point, and Amazon isn’t even bothering with theaters for another 80s icon, as the Henry Cavill Voltron movie is being sent straight to streaming on Prime Video.
The struggles extend beyond the 80s brands, too. Mortal Kombat II has grossed around $128 million worldwide on an $80 million budget — short of break-even estimates in the $200 million range, and even Star Wars is feeling it, with The Mandalorian & Grogu sitting under $300 million worldwide and tracking toward the lowest total of the Disney era.
In that environment, a fresh voice like Fuchs coming off the buzzy Welcome to Derry might be exactly the kind of swing Transformers needs, because simply showing up with a legacy brand name clearly isn’t enough anymore.
What about those Michael Bay and Shia LaBeouf rumors?
The Fuchs news also lands in the middle of months of rumors that Michael Bay could return to direct a new Transformers movie, possibly with Shia LaBeouf back as Sam Witwicky. So where does this leave all that?
Bay is attached to the Fuchs project, but as a producer, the same role he’s held on every entry since stepping away from the director’s chair. And his dance card just got fuller: Bay recently signed on to direct a true-story Iran rescue movie for Universal, which appears to be his next film behind the camera.
That said, the Transformers script is only now being written, so a director won’t be needed for a while, meaning a Bay return isn’t off the table, just not confirmed by anything announced so far.
The LaBeouf talk looks shakier. TheWrap‘s report says this movie continues Noah Diaz’s story out of Rise of the Beasts — not a Witwicky-era revival — though with plot details under wraps, nothing rules anything out.
Also worth noting: LaBeouf recently resolved his New Orleans legal case, pleading guilty earlier this month to three counts of simple battery tied to a Mardi Gras bar fight. He received a suspended sentence and two years’ probation.
Rise of the Beasts streams free on Pluto TV July 1
Meanwhile, fans who want to revisit (or finally catch) the movie this new project reportedly builds from won’t have to pay a dime.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts arrives on Pluto TV on July 1 for its exclusive free streaming premiere, the first time the film has been available to stream at no cost.
Directed by Steven Caple Jr. and set in 1994 Brooklyn, Rise of the Beasts teams two humans with the Autobots and the Maximals — a faction of animal-based Transformers — to protect Earth from a planet-consuming threat. The film stars Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback, with a voice cast that includes Peter Cullen, Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage, and Ron Perlman.
Pluto TV is also currently streaming three earlier entries for free: Transformers (2007), Revenge of the Fallen, and Dark of the Moon, so a full Bay-era refresher is on the table heading into July.
