Transformers: Return of the Gods

*Transformers: Return of the Gods* is a science fiction action project from Paramount Pictures based on Hasbro’s *Transformers* toy line that would have been released in 2016 had it not been canceled and retooled into *Transformers: The Last Knight* (2017) by the Transformers writer’s room. It was the planned sequel to *Transformers: Age of Extinction* (2014), and the second installment in the soft-reboot sequel trilogy of the *Transformers* film series. The director of the previous installment, Michael Bay, had at the time maintained that he would not return to direct the next entry. Although a new director was never decided upon, whoever it turned out to be would have worked from a screenplay by Ehren Kruger. It would have starred Mark Wahlberg, reprising his role from *Age of Extinction*.

While Optimus Prime journeys in space to find his creators, Cade Yeager must work with Bumblebee and his team of Autobots to once again put a stop to the main villain Galvatron. Optimus discovers that his creators are the alien race known as the Quintessons and must defend himself in trial by a Quintesson Judge. The film would have introduced Unicron as the main antagonist for the sequel along with an alternate version of the Guardian Knights with unknown loyalties. The cliffhanger of the film would have been Optimus being brainwashed into servitude by the Quintessons and becoming Nemesis Prime.

Development:

- Road to Age of Extinction

Fully understanding what happened behind the scenes of *Return of the Gods* requires knowledge of the production of *Age of Extinction*. During production for *Transformers: Dark of the Moon*, Shia LaBeouf and Bay stated that they would both not be returning for a fourth installment of the franchise. Bay wanted to take his career in a new direction, returning to smaller budget films, with the first of these being *Pain & Gain* (2013). Shia believed with *Dark of the Moon* he had completed Sam Witwicky’s story and that there was nowhere else he could go with it, instead choosing to focus his talents on films like *Fury* (2014). Hasbro was uncertain on whether or not they wanted to reboot the series or create a sequel trilogy, with them leaving this decision to the new writer and director they would hire. Roland Emmerich, Joe Johnston, Jon Turteltaub, Stephen Sommers, Louis Leterrier and David Yates were rumored to replace Bay; but before any contracts were signed, Bay miraculously returned.

Michael Bay would later clarify his reasoning for this in a *Collider* interview during the months of filming *Age of Extinction*. He was asked, “What made you want to come back and do another one?”

He responded, “The real truth? I went to the ride, and I saw a three-hour line… You see all these kids and families, and then I went to the one in Singapore… To just hand this over to somebody? You know what I’m saying? What I want to do is really set it up and … the bottom line, if someone would take it over, you would get a director who doesn’t do a lot of these movies, you’ll probably get a B star, you know what I’m saying? So, on Pain & Gain, it kinda came together.  We started working on a script, and then by bringing Mark on this, that’s what made it fun for me. It’s a better way to set it up.  And we redesigned all the robots, everything is new from top to bottom.  You come into the franchise, you have to redesign everything. … It’s overwhelming because you have to start in August, designing, all the way to the shoot.”   - Michael Bay (June 17, 2014)

It appeared that Bay was doing a soft-reboot sequel, with this only being confirmed by the finished film. Although in that same interview Bay admitted that he had become very passionate about the story during his time directing Age of Extinction, he had not come back with the intention of directing the next two installments of the *Transformers* franchise. The abundance of story threads left at the end of *Age of Extinction* were no mistake, Bay had worked with writer Ehren Kruger (*Revenge of the Fallen*, *Dark of the Moon*) to make sure that the next director would be sure to follow in Bay’s creative vision. New elements such as the Creators, Transformium, Galvatron (plainly set up as the villain for the next installment), the Knights, and the Dinobots gave the next director a large sandbox to work within when formulating the direction they would want to take.

- Road to The Last Knight

After *Age of Extinction*'s worldwide release garnered $1.104 billion, Ehren Kruger went right to work drafting his script for the next installment *Return of the Gods*, but much was going on behind the scenes at Paramount Pictures. Seeing the growth of the *Marvel Cinematic Universe* (MCU) into a box office juggernaut, Paramount hoped to replicate that success with their own *Transformers* cinematic universe. In March 2015, Deadline Hollywood reported that Paramount Pictures was in talks with Akiva Goldsman to pitch new ideas and plans for the future of the series. Goldsman became the head of future projects, and worked with franchise director Michael Bay, executive producer Steven Spielberg, and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura to organize a "writers' room" with the express purpose of pitching Transformers spinoffs. This writers' room members included Christina Hodson, Ken Nolan, Andrew Barrer, Gabriel Ferrari, Robert Kirkman, Zak Penn, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, Jeff Pinkner, and Steven DeKnight.

The fifth *Transformers* installment continued production but with these writers greatly reimagining it’s story. The resulting product *Transformers: The Last Knight* still holds a resemblance to Kruger’s draft, though many elements from the pitched spinoff *Transformers: Knights* are what truly shifted the direction of the entry. Elements such as the Goddess Quintessa, Planet Earth Unicron, the Guardian/Iacon Knights, the Talisman, Merlin’s Staff of Power, the Order of the Witwiccans, etc. These were all from that pitch, making *The Last Knight* half a sequel to *Age of Extinction* and half a promotion for the then upcoming *Knights*. In addition, the flashback of Hot Rod and Bumblebee in World War II during *The Last Knight* was a reference to *Transformers: Operation Skyfire*, a pitch which would have followed a ragtag group of Autobots in their mission to prevent the Decepticons from freeing their leader Megatron out of the ice during the war.

In the end though, the critical and financial failure of *The Last Knight* disbanded the writer’s room, with the only filmed spinoff being re-edited and re-shot into a film that could serve as a prequel and/or reboot for the franchise depending on what the next director would want to do. This film of course being the critically acclaimed *Bumblebee* (2018) that was directed by Travis Knight that was followed up by the critically panned *Transformers: Rise of the Beasts* (2023) five years later. It may never be revealed what Bay and Kruger mapped out all the way back in 2013, there may have barely even been a roadmap at all, but there is a very limited amount of concept art of *Return of the Gods* included with what was made for *The Last Knight* that has been released to the public.

## Potential Autobot Lineup

* Peter Cullen as Optimus/Nemesis Prime
* Ben Swartz as Bumblebee
* John Goodman as Hound
* Ken Watanabe as Drift
* John DiMaggio as Crosshairs

## Potential Dinobot Lineup

* Grimlock
* Scorn
* Slug
* Strafe

## Potential Decepticon Lineup

* Frank Welker as Galvatron
* Jess Harnell as Barricade

## Potential Human Cast

* Mark Wahlberg as Cade Yeager
* Nicola Peltz as Tessa Yeager
* Jack Reynor as Shane Dyson
* Stanley Tucci as Joshua Joyce
* Sophia Myles as Darcy Tyril
* Li Bingbing as Su Yueming