Akiva Goldsman explains the long term goals of the Transformers writing room

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Two final writers have joined Paramount's TRANSFORMERS writing room: BLACK HAWK DOWN writer Ken Nolan and Black Lister for HIBERNATION, Geneva Robertson-Dworet. The two scribes join Christina Hodson and Lindsey Beer, ANT-MAN's Andrew Barrer & Gabriel Ferrari, Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, IRON MAN's Art Marcum & Matt Holloway, PACIFIC RIM 2‘s Zak Penn and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2’s Jeff Pinkner. Led by Akiva Goldsman, this group is joining to churn out multiple TRANSFORMERS movies with one end goal in mind: a Cinematic Universe.

Similar to what Marvel and DC are doing, Paramount wants to replicate this same concept with the fertile robots in disguise characters. Goldsman says the idea is to replicate how TV writer's rooms work to come up with a single direction for all of the narratives to flow towards. He cited the work at Universal with their upcoming monster films, Disney with STAR WARS, and Marvel Studios.

We’ve got a work space that is beautifully production designed to be immersive with a strong sense of the franchise history,” he said. “We will look at the toys, the TV shows, the merchandise, everything that has been generated by Hasbro, from popular to forgotten iterations, and establish a mythological time line. It has been designed with a lot of visual help, toys, robots, sketches and writers and artists. After that super saturation, the writers will figure out not one, but numerous films that will extend the universe.”

The first step is to write TRANSFORMERS 5 for Michael Bay to begin working on after he completes 13 HOURS. They are then given free reign to develop their own ideas based on any TRANSFORMERS concept they like. Goldsman cited Beast Wars as a potential movie if the writers gravitate towards it. The sky is literally the limit with these project. The only condition is that anything they fashion must be approved by Goldsman, Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay, Paramount, and Hasbro. But, the ultimate goal is to enjoy the process.

“It just felt like such fertile ground and a rich environment for storytelling, and there has already been thoughtful work done long before any of us came into the room,” Goldsman said. “We will be innovative miners, and we will have fun and get to do what we imagined this was all about when we were kids.”

While each TRANSFORMERS movie has felt progressively less intelligent that the previous film, the special effects and visuals have improved dramatically. If these writers, none of whom were directly responsible for the first four films, can come up with some cool movie ideas, TRANSFORMERS may be salvageable and not the joke of a franchise many movie fans make them out to be.

The group begins their work this coming Monday with the presumed release of TRANSFORMERS 5 slated for 2017.