Michael Bay Confirms Transformers: Age Of Extinction Is The Start Of A New Trilogy

Optimus

What more do you need me to tell you about Transformers: Age of Extinction beyond "Dino-bots." I mean, if the above shot of Optimus Prime and the below shot of Grimlock don’t get your pulse racing just a tad for Michael Bay’s fourth (and final?) Transformers movie, then grab a ticket to something safer and be on your way.

Grimlock

The images were posted by Hasbro (via the Transformers fan site TFW2005), and provide artist renderings of characters from Bay’s Age of Extinction. They are a little more animated than they will appear in the film, which usually goes to the extra mile to bring the Transformers into our real world… which they then destroy. Here’s Bumblebee, a crowd-favorite Autobot who’ll be back in action for a fourth straight movie this summer.

Bumblebee

Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction also was profiled in EW’s Summer Movie Guide, and the director spoke about this new movie being the launch pad for a wholly new trilogy. Bay said:

We had three, the first trilogy, and this is going to be the next one. It’s the first of a new trilogy. I’m not necessarily sure that I’m doing [the others], but that’s what it’s meant for."

Paramount shouldn’t doubt the financial capabilities of Bay’s Transformers movies. The last one, Dark of the Moon, grossed $1.12 billion at the global box office in 2011. Audiences LOVE these movies, and they want to see new characters added with each new sequel. To that end, Bay opened up to EW about Lockdown, who looks like this:

Lockdown

Bay said:

Lockdown is an interesting character. He travels the galaxy, he works for somebody else. And he’s here for one person, one alien, and then he’s out of here. So he doesn’t really want to take sides. The cause and balance of the galaxy is kind of messed up when different species play with different species. And that opens up a whole other gigantic world for Transformers... Lockdown’s ship has a lot of meaning that can go into other movies. There’s a lot of backstory about that ship that’s not laid out here. You’re going to see a few things where you’re like ‘What is that? And what is that?’ And you’re going to see a couple shots like, ‘Wait a minute, who are they?’ But we don’t answer those questions."

Yay! More world building in summer blockbusters!

Here’s what we know about Transformers: Age of Extinction. It’s Bay’s fourth movie in the series, but he dropped Shia LaBeouf for Mark Wahlberg and Nicola Peltz. It roars into theaters on June 27, and stars these guys. What do you think?

Galvatron

Scorn

Stinger

Strafe

Sean O'Connell
Managing Editor

Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.