Brace yourself for some real change over the the TRANSFORMERS front. While Michael Bay has definitely left quite an imprint on the franchise, it was inevitable that he would leave it at some point. He’s only one man, and this property has always been bigger than him. This became all the more apparent last week when it was announced that we would be getting not one, not two, but THREE new TRANSFORMERS flicks over the course of three years.

The first of the three films is to be Michael Bay’s next TRANSFORMERS film (and supposedly last, though I’m not falling for that again), the third film is a general TRANSFORMERS movie (not quite sure what that means just yet), and the film to be released in between those two is none other than the Bumblebee spinoff, which we’ll be talking about today.

“There are characters in the Transformers universe that can be and should be made into their own movies,” Paramount Pictures chairman and CEO Brad Grey told THR. “We will make the first movie with Michael and go right into a Bumblebee movie, which will be at a lower cost.”

This may come as a relief to some fans, as the state of Hollywood does appear increasingly disheartening when you look at just how much all our favorite movie franchise’s budgets have increased. The last TRANSFORMERS film, AGE OF EXTINCTION had a budget of around $210 million, according to Box Office Mojo. While it helps to have a sufficient budget for a film, lower budgets do have their positives. Instead of relying on money to solve problems, filmmakers have to come up with creative solutions, and oftentimes, this results in a better film. Robert Rodriguez is well known for either wanting a low budget or an ambitious schedule for his films, as he feels it forces him to think more creatively.

Will this approach work for a Bumblee spinoff? Without a larger budget to rely on, hopefully, they’ll be able to focus more on the character development, which is something the previous films have been lacking dearly.

Grey continued:

“We’ve brought in a pretty strong writing staff run by Akiva Goldsman, and they have put together eight or nine interesting stories. So, between that group and Steven Spielberg’s guidance on a story level, these characters are a big business for us to pursue.”

I don’t know about you, but this makes me want to skip TRANSFORMERS 5 altogether and go straight into this spinoff. The franchise has been in need of a hard reset for a while. Perhaps with Bay out, the budget down, and the writing team behind them this will be the best TRANSFORMERS film to date.

What do you think of Grey’s comments? Sound off down below!

SOURCE: THR