At this point, the return of Michael Bay to the director's chair might be the only way to save the Transformers franchise. Transformers One was recently released in theaters, revealing the origins of Optimus Prime and Megatron when they were brothers known as Orion Pax and D-16. However, the new animated prequel has joined the collection of post-Bay Transformers projects that have not seen much success at the box office.

Having directed and produced the first Transformers live-action movie in 2007, Bay would go on to direct four more sequels with his final movie beingTransformers: The Last Knight in 2017. Since then, the Transformers franchise has released 2018's Bumblebee directed by Travis Knight, 2023's Transformers: Rise of the Beasts from director Steven Caple Jr, and most recently the animated Transformers One by Josh Cooley. Each of these movies has seen lower box office numbers compared to the Bay films of the past,...