Transformers was already a popular toy and TV property for several decades by the time the first live action movie came out in 2007, but the film series bumped the robots in disguise to a new level of fame. While not usually critical winners, most of the Transformers movies have performed extremely well commercially, and later this year we'll take a detour to the 1980s with the Bumblebee spinoff. Following that, the plan was to release another main installment in this franchise, but word's come in that that Transformers 6 has been taken off Paramount Pictures' 2019 schedule.
Transformers 6 was originally supposed to be released on June 28, 2019, but The Wrap reports that Paramount has removed the sequel from its release slate, and the studio has put in the Tiffany Haddish-led comedy Limited Partners in its place. This also means Bumblebee is now the only Transformers movie that the studio currently has on its slate. There's no indication in the piece that Transformers 6 has been scrapped entirely, so it's possible that Paramount simply plans to release it at a later date, like in summer 2020. That said, this move does come after last year's The Last Knight became the lowest-grossing of the Transformers movies, making only $605.4 million worldwide.
Back in 2015, a writers room was assembled to hash out stories for the Transformers cinematic universe, so at the time, it sounded like the Transformers movies weren't going anywhere, especially since 2011's Dark of the Moon and 2014's Age of Extinction both cracked the $1 billion mark. However, with The Last Knight's disappointing commercial run and earning less-than-stellar reviews, it appears that those overseeing the franchise are taking a step back with the next installment following Bumblebee.
It's also worth mentioning that earlier this year, it was reported at the Toy Fair 2018 Hasbro Investor Preview that Hasbro was bringing in a new team to "reset" the Transformers film franchise following Bumblebee's release, though Hasbro's brand manager later debunked the idea that this meant the series was being rebooted. Now that Transformers 6 is undated, it's not farfetched to think that Hasbro and Paramount might be contemplating going in a drastically different direction with the Transformers movies. This could be through a standard reboot, thus putting the conflict between the Autobots and the Decepticons through a new lens, or perhaps the series will just deliver a different kind of tale that's set in the same continuity, like that animated movie tentatively being called Transformers One that will explore the origins of these robotic beings on Cybertron.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for any updates about Transformers 6, but in the meantime, fans of the franchise have Bumblebee to look forward to on December 21. You can also scan through our 2018 release guide to see what movies coming out later this year catch your fancy.
