Paramount Pictures has set a release date for their animated Transformers movie amid their recent announcement of several release date changes. While Paramount Pictures got a win with the release of Scream, which opened at number one at the box office, the studio decide to shuffle many of their major releases. The delay of Mission: Impossible 7 from 2022 to 2023 caused a domino effect on many Paramount titles, including a new Transformers film.
Transformers has been one of Paramount Pictures' most successful film brands, with three of the top five highest-grossing films in the studio's history being Transformers films. While 2017's Transformers: The Last Knight underperformed, Bumblebee managed to turn the perception of the franchise around and breathed new life into the series. Paramount is looking to capitalize on the brand by branching out, and in 2020, signed Toy Story 4 director Josh Cooley to helm a new animated film in the franchise.
Paramount announced in a press release that an untitled Transformers animated film is set to release on July 19, 2024. While no major releases are scheduled at the same time as the film currently, the movie will be opening one week before an untitled Marvel Studios movie on July 26, 2024. It is also one of two major releases Paramount Pictures is currently set for summer 2024, alongside Mission: Impossible 8, which will open in theaters on June 28, 2024.
Paramount had recently delayed the release of the next live-action entry in the franchise, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, from its June 2022 release date to June 9, 2023. That film will introduce the popular Beast Wars characters to the franchise and continue the story set up in Bumblebee. While it is currently unknown what the plot of the animated film will be, it was reported to be a prequel, so it will likely detail the War for Cybertron and could detail how Optimus Prime and Megatron became enemies.
The model of releasing both a live-action film and animated installment in a franchise is similar to what Sony has adopted with Spider-Man, as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was released in the years between MCU films. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse broke new ground for the franchise and eventually went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Picture, so Paramount Pictures is likely hoping for a similar brand revival with Transformers. This is a model the studio is adapting for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well, which has both a live-action film and an animated one in development at the same time. Transformers has a strong history in animation, so a new animated film for the robots in disguise seems like the franchise coming full circle.
Source: Paramount
