Akiva Goldsman, the screenwriter hired to lead the writers' room for the "Transformers" franchise, recently sat down for an interview with IGN in which he confirmed a few details regarding what fans can expect for the upcoming "Transformers 5," the announced animated prequel, and future live-action films.
According to Goldsman, the next live-actions ("Transformers 5" to "Transformers 8") will be standalone in nature but will remain interconnected. This is very reminscent of how Marvel has handled its expanded film universe where each individual film stood on its with its own characters and plot but each film was tied to the others.
This doesn't immediately mean there will be an "Avengers" type film where the characters of the upcoming "Transformers" movies will all come together to face a larger threat, although it still remains within the realm of possibilities.
However, when asked if the upcoming film will focus entirely on the titular robots or if the human characters will still play a significant part, Goldsman confirmed that the latter route was the one they were sticking to.
"Fundamentally, there seems to be something really great about the interaction between the two species," he explains. "I think that, in the main, I would suggest that that would be something you wouldn't want to squander. Although that doesn't mean that you couldn't do all sorts of things for a little while."
His statement at the end may pertain to the animated prequel. During the interview, Goldsman confirmed that the prequel will focus entirely on the Transformers and will be set during the period prior to Optimus Prime and Megatron's arrival on Earth, hinting that it will focus on the war on their planet Cybertron.
One tidbit Goldsman did not confirm was whether or not "Transformers 5" would release in 2017, and neither did he reveal any cast members or if director Michael Bay would be returning to helm the project.
