UPDATE: Michael Bay has taken to Twitter to give his two cents on whether or not he's returning for the 5th film. See below: – PS
So that TRANSFORMERS writers' room appears to have finally broken, and now we're getting an idea of what they think they can make work and what the plans are over the next few years as Paramount and Hasbro aim to expand the presence of Autobots and Decepticons in the movies.
Akiva Goldsman, foreman of this group so to speak, is lined up with an idea for TRANSFORMERS 5 and will set out to write the script with Mark Wahlberg reprising his role from AGE OF EXTINCTION and Michael Bay once again sitting in the director's chair. The goal is to have this next sequel in production by June, which would then most likely set it up for a Summer 2017 release date. Hmmm… I wonder if they managed to get those two rumored plots in there as the backbone of whatever they have planned. I guess we'll find out sooner rather than later.
But that's not all. The Transformers will be getting back to their roots after that, going animated once more. Andrew Barrer & Gabriel Ferrari, who worked on the writing of ANT-MAN post-Edgar Wright, have nabbed that gig, which will be more of an origin story than anything else. I don't know that we're going to get baby Optimus Prime, even though the very thought of it has me considering that I might actually go check out that flick. It will focus on Cybertron though, so if you wanted to see more of what life might be like on that alien planet, here's your chance.
As for beyond that, the entire group took turns pitching ideas to Steven Spielberg, Bay, Paramount, Hasbro’s Brian Goldner and producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian and Don Murphy. While a number of ideas didn't seem to be the type that an entire feature film could be built on, Spielberg reportedly was very happy with the collaborative effort, seeing at least five of the nine big ones thrown out there as potential movies.
There also seems to be enough ideas to get a sixth TRANSFORMERS movie out of everything they came up with, but it would appear that would be with someone else at the helm. Whatever TRANSFORMERS 5 is going to be called is thought to be Bay's last go-around, and it would set the stage for someone else to be handed the torch and perhaps infuse the franchise with some new blood as it heads into the future. Then again, that's what we heard around TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON, and look how quickly things changed when the studio was willing to fund PAIN & GAIN for someone, so you never know.