Surviving To Fight Another 'Bay': Mark Wahlberg Says Michael Bay Isn't Finished With Transformers

Chances are, if you imagine a movie where something needs blowing up, you'd get #MichaelBay on the phone. The master of the disaster epic, Bay's action-packed career includes directorial duties on The Rock, Apollo 13, and Pearl Harbor. However, for the past eight years, he has been known as the ruler of robots and the unanimously declared Godfather of the #Transformers franchise.

Grabbing an impressive piece of the box office pie, we have seen the series change shape almost as much as its titular robots, swapping out various Autobots and Decepticons as we have battled dinosaurs, knights, and Megan Fox's lack of acting ability. Now, as the fifth film enters cinemas with Transformers: The Last Knight, Bay has promised to walk away and let someone else usher in a new era for the Hasbro heroes. That being said, it sounds like one of the movie's biggest stars isn't quite so convinced that Bay is ready to pack up his toys just yet.

Departure In Disguise

Departure In Disguise

While #MarkWahlberg's role as Cade Yeager in The Last Knight looks to be his last in the series, he did reveal to ComicBook.com that Bay's departure is a little trickier to imagine:

"You know it's one of those things where Michael has built this entire universe right, and he will decide what he wants to do and how he wants to do it. Right now he says he doesn't want to do another film and he says that after every film because they are so difficult to make and he pretty much has to do it single-handedly, even with all the help that he has because all of the movie is in his mind."

Only recently, Bay had said how he would love an R-rated iteration of the movies, and was even once pitched the idea for an R-rated Bumblebee spin-off. Do they sound like the ramblings of a man who is ready to go just yet? Wahlberg then went on to say that we shouldn't start blowing up the balloons for Bay's farewell party just yet:

"So he'll decide that and I would be hard pressed to see him walk away and put it in somebody else's control and care. I mean, that's just the Michael that I know, but you never know, sometimes people decide to move on, so we'll see what happens."

Perhaps Bay will be taking a well-earned break from destroying large chunks of set and rest his ears from all the explosions and fireworks. With Paramount already circling the idea of 14 — yes, 14 — more Transformers films, Bay may be heading off, but those toy box favorites aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Is playtime really over?

Ultimately, a lot of it will come down to the critical and commercial success of The Last Knight, but let's be honest, it isn't looking good. With a struggling box office and some saying it is the worst film of the year — letting Alex Kurtzman's The Mummy off the hook — there are even fears that The Last Knight could be the last Transformers film.

To be honest, it was a problem we could all see coming. Even from the trailers, the whole premise of The Last Knight all looked a bit puzzling and apocalyptic — dino-bots we can deal with, but not jousting hunks of junk. The Transformers films have always balanced lunacy and laughter in equal measure, but The Last Knight was arguably running low on ideas. This year's flop and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword seems to show that 2017 just isn't the year for medieval marvels, while The Last Knight's inclusion of a legendary actor like Sir Anthony Hopkins is sure to be a bad CV move on his part.

Everything could of course be saved by Travis Knight's #Bumblebee spin-off, but the it's still uncertain what's to come for the main series of the Transformer films. Thankfully, we have seen this in the past with the likes of the X-Men and Mission: Impossible franchises when they came out with dire entries, only to switch gear and come back fighting. In the meantime, perhaps it is best if the Transformers take a leaf out of their director's book and go for a little lie down and some R&R — recharge and reboot.

(Source: ComicBook.com)