Steven Spielberg & Michel Bay Reuniting for Next Installment of the Transformers Franchise

It looks like the live-action Transformers film franchise is undergoing another reset, with some familiar faces involved. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg is returning to the franchise for the upcoming eighth live-action installment.

Spielberg is reportedly attached to focus on the “creative aspects” of the next live-action Transformers movie, based on Hasbro’s popular line of toys. He’s also set to executive produce the project, similar to the work he did on the earlier films, as Paramount Pictures wants to “build out the Transformers universe.”

Additionally, director Michael Bay is in talks to direct the new movie, which would reunite him with Spielberg and longtime franchise producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. Bay previously directed the first five installments of the live-action series, which depicted the Autobots and Decepticons fighting against each other with the fate of the planet hanging in the balance.

THR notes that Shia LaBeouf, who starred in the first three movies as Sam Witwicky, isn’t returning for the new movie, and there’s no word yet on the planned storyline or casting. It’s said that Spielberg previously met with Paramount Pictures co-chairs Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg in August 2025, ahead of the now-complete merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

According to the report, the currently untitled Transformers 8 will be set in the modern day, with scribe Jason Fuchs writing the initial draft. Di Bonaventura is reportedly helping to develop the script, with Spielberg reading and signing off on it.

The last two live-action movies, Bumblebee and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, were period pieces, with the former set in 1987 and the latter set in 1994. So, it looks like the new movie will be taking events back to the present day.

Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay Reuniting for Transformers

The Transformers film franchise has grossed over $5.4 billion at the global box office, so it’s not surprising that Paramount is looking to reunite the team that helped bring it to such huge success with the first movie in 2007. For years, the franchise appeared to be critic-proof, until its fifth entry, Transformers: The Last Knight, in 2017.

The fifth entry only made $130 million domestically and just over $605 million worldwide, falling short of its predecessors. The franchise then attempted soft reboots with Bumblebee and Rise of the Beasts. Although Bumblebee, directed by Travis Knight, drew the best reviews of any live-action Transformers movie to date, it only made $127 million domestically and $467 million worldwide. Rise of the Beasts made even less, grossing only $441 million worldwide in 2023.

Back at CinemaCon 2024, Paramount Pictures announced plans for a live-action movie that would see the iconic Hasbro properties of GI Joe and Transformers cross over on the big screen. The crossover was also teased in a credits scene in Rise of the Beasts.

However, it looks like Paramount has since pulled the plug on the GI Joe/Transformers crossover. Instead, the studio is moving forward with a new live-action GI Joe reboot, helmed by Danny McBride, and it looks like Transformers is returning to the big screen with its original creative team.

Di Bonaventura, Mark Vahradian, Don Murphy, and Tom DeSanto are producing the new Transformers feature, along with licensor and IP owner Hasbro.