With the release of Transformers: Age of Extinction this past summer, the giant fighting robot franchise did a bit of rebooting work. While it wasn’t overall job, audiences did say goodbye to the likes of Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and others as new human characters played by Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, and Jack Reynor were introduced. Now that the franchise is moving forward with a fifth Transformers movie, many have been wondering if the new gang will be carrying over to the next sequel – and now we know the answer is yes for at least one of them.
Mark Wahlberg is currently out promoting his new film The Gambler, and while speaking to MTV he confirmed that he is locked up in a long term contract with Paramount Pictures that will see him starring in Transformer movies for many years to come. Asked if his time being around giant robots was coming to an end or just beginning, the actor responded, “Yeah, I committed to doing a couple more.”
But while Wahlberg may be signed on and ready to go for Transformers 5, the same can not be said about the man who has been helming the movies from the beginning. Back in August, shortly after it was announced that Transformers: Age of Extinction had eclipsed the $1 billion mark worldwide, Bay revealed that he is now looking to explore other avenues with his career and won’t be back for the next installment. That being said, the director also said very similar things after Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and he was convinced to come back after taking a break from action blockbusters with Pain & Gain. In the MTV interview, Wahlberg added that he couldn’t speak for Michael Bay’s presence on Transformers 5, but that “something tells [him] we’ll be on the set soon.”
It’s not exactly a huge surprise to hear that the folks at Paramount Pictures are eager to get yet another Transformers movie into development. While the movie didn’t perform tremendously here in the United States, making only $245 million and ranking as dead last in the live-action franchise, it was a gigantic hit overseas and eventually pulled in a global total of $1.087 billion – enough to rank it as the highest grossing movie of 2014 (Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy sits in second place with a $772 million total). If Paramount wants to get another sequel in the works, however, they’re going to need to find somebody to steer the ship, and we have not heard a peep about potential candidates to replace Michael Bay.
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