Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Paramount and Hasbro have selected Steven Caple Jr. as director for the next Transformers film. Caple will follow in the footsteps of Michael Bay, who's five live-action Transformers films grossed over $4 billion worldwide between 2007 and 2017. A soft-reboot of the series was delivered by 2018's Transformers: Bumblebee.
According to reports, Paramount and Hasbro first decided to reboot the Transformers franchise following Bumblebee by setting up a robust writer's room that created a myriad of pitches for how to reboot the giant robot sci-fi franchise.
In the end, the studio narrowed things down to 2 scripts: a Beastwars spinoff from James Vanderbilt (Zodiac; The Amazing Spider-Man) and a continuation of Bumblebee penned by Joby Harold (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword; Obi-Wan Kenobi). According to Deadline's report, the Bumblebee continuation from Harold was chosen as the project to move forward.
There's no word yet on when cameras are expected to roll or if any of the cast from Bumblebee are set to reprise their roles. However, it's likely that a late-2021 start date would be the sensible choice as COVID-19 vaccinations are expected to be widely available by then.
In addition to the live-action project, there's also an animated Transformers prequel film in development from Toy Story 4 director Josh Cooley.
A third installment in the Creed franchise is reportedly set to be helmed by its lead star Michael B. Jordan, who will be making his directorial debut.