Bad news, Autobot fans. Paramount Pictures has officially dropped the seventh Transformers movie from its release schedule, a studio spokesperson has confirmed to SYFY WIRE.
Rumors had been circulating since February that Transformers 7 would not be seeing the light of screen next year. But now, it’s official. The film was originally set for release on June 28, 2019. Instead, the studio will release the Tiffany Haddish comedy Limited Partners on that date. (Separately, Paramount’s revised release schedule also shows that the Pet Sematary remake/re-adaptation, which was previously scheduled to open April 19, 2019, is now set to hit theatres two weeks earlier, on April 5, 2019.)
Now, chin up, Transformers fans. All is not lost. Paramount will still open the spinoff film Bumblebee (which we’re counting as the sixth Transformers film) this year on Dec. 21.
The Transformers film franchise has been up in the air recently. Michael Bay, who directed the first five films, has been eyeing an exit (he’s only producing the Bumblebee prequel spinoff; Travis Knight is directing). Last year’s installment, Transformers: The Last Knight, performed the weakest of the series, raking in only $605 million globally (only!). And rumors were floating around earlier this year that the Transformers film franchise was slated for a total reboot (which was later denied — sort of — by the Transformers brand manager).
A spokesperson from Paramount didn’t comment on what this means for the film or for the franchise beyond confirming the studio’s revised release schedule. So, we don’t know if this means the film has been scrapped altogether or merely postponed. (Information is scant on where the film is in terms of production.)