A love story between Transformers could be in the franchise’s future

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Although BUMBLEBEE may not have been the biggest box-office success in the TRANSFORMERS series, it was the most critically-acclaimed installment of the franchise by far, which has audiences excited about the future of TRANSFORMERS for the first time in a long while. Franchise producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura recently spoke with Collider about how the franchise will be developing in future, and one of those developments involves devoting more time to giving the Transformers real and compelling emotional arcs, which could include a love story between Transformers.

One of the things I want to see, and I don’t know if we’ll do this particular thing, but I think we will eventually do a love story between Transformers. What does a love story mean? Definitely not sex, maybe not even kissing, but the idea that they would have that emotional crush has never really been brought in. That’s kind of the direction we’re going to try to head into, which is to give them human desires that, up until now, we haven’t seen much of. I think that will change the relationship with the Transformers. So we may do some wild action, we’ll do action for sure in the main line, but it’s a different kind of attempt. I know we will hold on to a lot of the lessons from Bumblebee.

If you were hoping to watch Transformers bump crankshafts, well, you'll have to go elsewhere for that, but if this means that more Transformers will move beyond walking/talking catchphrases, then I'm onboard. Lorenzo di Bonaventura also recently said that the BUMBLEBEE sequel will be infused with more Bayhem, which is something I'm not onboard with. "Several lessons have come out of this. One is that we have the freedom to tell almost any story. The other is that, how strongly the audience identified with the strength of character and emotion. 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," di Bonaventura said. "And a little bit more of the character falling in love within the emotional dynamic of the movie. One of the things I want to do—and I hope we pull it off—is, we did it with Bumblebee because he’s so cute and he’s so accessible, but he can’t talk. I think the more human we can make these characters, the more people are going to like them." I know I can't speak for everyone, but I feel like the lack of Michael Bay's over-the-top action sequences was precisously one of the reasons why audiences enjoyed BUMBLEBEE so much, but hey, I'm not a high-powered Hollywood executive, so what do I know.