Transformers One Sequel Updates: Is It Happening?

There’s a cruel irony to “Transformers One,” 2024’s animated prequel film about the robots in disguise. Directed by Josh Cooley, “Transformers One” is the first great “Transformers” movie — yet we may never get a “Transformers Two.”

I like the original 1986 “Transformers: The Movie.” I understand why its rock-n-rollin soundtrack (“You’ve got the touch!”) and epic moments — from Optimus Prime’s sacrifice to the planet eater Unicron revealing his enormous true form — will burn into your brain if you see it at the right age. But the script is pretty slapdash, the animation is richer and more detailed than that in the ’80s cartoon but still filled with careless errors, and the whole cynical purpose of the film (kill the old Transformers toys, sell the new ones) is galling.

Meanwhile, all of the live-action “Transformers” movies directed by Michael Bay lie on a sliding scale of bad. “Bumblebee” is good, if slight, but then “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” was so boring. “Transformers One” loses the human perspective yet is easily the most soulful movie in this franchise. The film’s marketing hinged on how this prequel was the untold story of Orion Pax/Optimus Prime (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16/Megatron (Brian Tyree Henry) transforming from brothers into enemies.

Torn apart by anger, ideology, and buried resentment, Orion and D are the most human characters in any of these movies. Optimus Prime and Megatron have always been broad archetypes of good and evil, but “Transformers One” shows neither was created that way. Yet, even with these heavier moments, the movie is still bright and adventurous, never forgetting to bring kids along for the ride.

So, why isn’t a “Transformers One” sequel a sure thing?

The sad reality is that great reviews and word of mouth weren’t enough to save “Transformers One” from being a box office disappointment. The movie grossed about $129 million, which is an underperformance no matter which of its two reported budgets ($75 million or $147 million) is accurate.

Even worse, this failure can’t be blamed entirely on “Transformers One” itself. The franchise has been in a downward spiral for the past decade. While under Michael Bay, “Transformers” was considered “critic proof,” meaning terrible reviews (and quality) meant nothing to audiences. People would still go see these movies. Heck, the fourth film, 2014’s “Age of Extinction,” got the worst reviews yet and still grossed $1 billion.

But it’s been downhill since. People apparently decided enough was enough and the fifth film, “Transformers: The Last Knight,” brought in only $600 million. A higher budget meant the movie was reportedly an outright flop for Paramount.

“Bumblebee” made it look like the property could survive by downsizing (and making good movies); it brought in only $468 million, but it had a budget of $100+ million. Then “Rise of the Beasts” reached for a bigger budget and fell short.

Basically, people had gotten sick of “Transformers.” The franchise does have a pretty low ratio of quality to films produced. The first trailer for “Transformers One” was also criticized; it showed off all the film’s childish humor, giving a bad impression of what the movie was. Plus, the film’s animation style and uncanny robot designs take more adjusting to than a two-minute trailer can provide.

Paramount also ended up sabotaging the movie with a release date change; pushing it from July to September meant the movie faced off with “The Wild Robot,” an even better animated picture and one that’s more fun for the whole family.

Hasbro, the toy company that owns the “Transformers” brand, announced in November 2024 that it would not fund movies based on its IP anymore. This has been interpreted as a sign the company wrote off “Transformers One” as a failure.

One positive sign is that “Transformers One” had an early boom once it was released on VOD in October 2024. Primus willing, sustained success there (combined with the film’s DVD and Blu-ray sales) could push it into profit.

Shortly after the release of “Transformers One,” long-time franchise producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura told Screen Rant that the movie’s creatives had ideas for a sequel and more if the film was successful.

“Number one, if we’re successful with this movie, we’re going to do a sequel for this. And we already have, I think, the beginnings of a really interesting story for the second one, which is also character-based, the way the first (is).”

Granted, di Bonaventura says a lot of things. He’s something of a meme in the “Transformers” fandom due to his wild statements. He’s been incredibly insistent, for instance, that “Bumblebee” and “Rise of the Beasts” are prequels to the Michael Bay movies, not reboots. He said the same about “Transformers One,” labeling it a prequel set billions of years before the live-action films, until Cooley stepped in and confirmed it was a new continuity.

In October 2024, “Transformers One” Production Designer Jason Barn Sort On the “Triple Takeover” podcast that Cooley had shared ideas for a sequel with him. Unfortunately, Scheier added, the film’s box office returns will likely hurt the chances of those ideas being realized:

“Josh has the whole second movie already outlined. He’s already talking to me, or spoke to specific aspects of things for the second film that are … 10 times crazier, more amazing than the first film? Yeah, it breaks my heart that it’s not performing because that’s gonna take a very long time to get here. Because it’s now, it’s gonna be like probably put on the backburner because, y’know, the box office didn’t justify the story. We need fans like yourselves to keep spreading the gospel that this thing needs to be made, because, um … I’m just patiently waiting for my chance to fight on Cybertron again!”

As for the cast, Bryan Tyree Henry has expressed interest in continuing this new saga. Speaking to Screen Rant in December 2024, he noted, “Well, you can’t have a ‘Transformers One’ in the title without having a ‘Transformers Two,’ you know what I mean? We still gotta see what happens with Megatron and Optimus.”

The ending of “Transformers One” leaves an obvious hook for the sequel: the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons has begun. Optimus and Megatron have become the characters we’re familiar with, so now they’ll wage their familiar battle to destroy each other. In the post-credits scene, Megatron declares his followers “the Decepticons” and vows war with their new enemy, Prime and his Autobots. The war usually leads to Cybertron being ravaged, forcing the Transformers to find a new home on Earth. It’s unknown if the makers ever intended this saga to leave Cybertron behind, though.

There’s another hanging thread too: the Quintessons, the squid-like aliens who invaded Cybertron. By the film’s end, they haven’t been overthrown, only their puppet Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) has. In his closing narration, Optimus warns the Quintessons to never return to Cybertron, but who says they’ll listen?

Cooley, naturally, hasn’t shared everything he has planned for “Transformers Two.” Speaking to Newsweek in December 2024, though, he said his sequel would still be a film about both Optimus and Megatron above all else:

“If it’s up to me, I definitely would continue that relationship between the two of them. I think that’s what makes this film work. Actually, I think that’s what makes ‘Transformers’ work. If you don’t have that relationship between those two characters, I don’t think it’s ‘Transformers,’ it’s just big robots, which could be anything. But it’s that relationship between those two characters that really makes a franchise.”

There’s lot of different angles you can take with Optimus and Megatron after the ending of “Transformers One.” They’ll probably both struggle a bit with being new leaders, and you can parallel those struggles. While they now share a lot of bitterness between them, are there parts in each of them that still care about the other? With how sympathetic he is in the first movie, could an eventual Megatron redemption arc be in the cards? It’s been done before.

In the aforementioned Newsweek interview, Cooley said he doesn’t know if Hemsworth would return as Optimus Prime for a sequel. However, he did say he directed Hemsworth with the idea that his Optimus would eventually grow into the wise one Peter Cullen has voiced for so many years:

“One of the things we worked on was how do we have a character that will eventually become the Peter Cullen that we know? Chris and I talked about Orion Pax early on. He can’t be too close, he can’t be too knowledgeable, he can’t be too wise, he has to be a little younger and just a little looser, because he hasn’t become hardened from war yet.”

Based on that Screen Rant interview, Henry sounds like he just needs the call to come back as Megatron, though. Presumably, the major supporting cast would return too, except Jon Hamm and probably not Laurence Fishburne as Alpha Trion, either. (Trion could show up in an Obi-Wan Kenobi ghost moment to Optimus, but that’s a definite maybe.) That means Scarlett Johansson as Elita-One, Keegan-Michael Key as B-127/Bumblebee/Badassatron, Steve Buscemi as Starscream, Jon Bailey as Soundwave, and Jason Konopisos-Alvarez as Shockwave.

Michael-Key went particularly above and beyond in his “Transformers” research (how else does he know what “Ore-13” is?), so I’m sure he’d be down to come back. “Transformers One” also ended with Starscream loyally throwing in with Megatron, although Starscream is defined by his arrogance, hatred, and treacheryso he won’t be a faithful servant for long.

In general, the ending of “Transformers One” leaves the door open for the background miners like Jazz, Arcee, and/or Ironhide, all now fully-transforming Autobots, to become more prominent characters in the sequel. As for who would voice them, we’ll only know if Paramount wises up and Josh Cooley make his “Transformers Two.”