Transformers director Michael Bay has admitted he should have stopped making new Transformers films, but the films kept making so much money that he was lured back again and again. In an interview with Unilad, Bay revealed that even fellow director Steven Spielberg asked Bay to stop making Transformers films after the third one, and Bay intended to call it quits–but he didn’t.
“I made too many of them. Steven Spielberg said, ‘Just stop at three,’ And I said I’d stop. The studio begged me to do a fourth, and then that made a billion too. And then I said I’m gonna stop here. And they begged me again. I should have stopped. They were fun to do,” Bay said.
Also in the interview, Bay reflected on the 2007 Transformers movie that kicked off the series, saying it was “scary” making that film because the production team didn’t know if the digital effects and wider technology required for such a CG-heavy movie would work as planned.
“It was technology we didn’t know would work, and then it became very successful. It was the first time digital effects were that highly reflective, so it broke a lot of new ground,” Bay said.
Bay directed 2007’s Transformers, following it up with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), and Transformers: The Last Knight (2017). The latest entry in the series was Bumblebee, which Bay did not direct. The next one is 2023’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which will be directed by Steven Caple Jr. and produced by Bay.
2007’s Transformers made $709.7 million to kickstart the series. 2011’s Dark of the Moon is the most commercially successful Transformers movie, banking more than $1.123 billion worldwide. 2014’s Age of Extinction made $1.104 billion to rank as Bay’s second highest-grossing Transformers movie. The lowest-grossing of the bunch was The Last Knight, which made $605 million.
Bay’s next movie is Ambulance starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Eiza Gonzalez. It releases April 8 in the US.
