MIAMI – January 5, 2016 — 2016 (UPI) — Michael Bay says Transformers 5 will be his last movie in the franchise.
The 50-year-old director claimed as much in an interview with Rolling Stone about his forthcoming film, 13 Hours. Bay directed all four previous installments, with the fifth slated for release in 2017.
“Transformers, I still have a great time,” he said. “It’s fun to do a movie that 100 million people will see. But this is the last one. I have to pass the reins to someone else. J.J. [Abrams] told me, ‘You’re the only guy that could do this.’ But it’s time to move on. One more.”
Bay previously told Collider the fifth movie will explore the identity of the Creators, and admitted the films are “hard to make” because of their sheer scale. He told the website he shoots everything himself to “get it right,” causing the movies to take longer to film.
The first Transformers installment premiered in 2007 and starred Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox, while the latest, Transformers: Age of Extinction, opened in 2014 and featured Mark Wahlberg and Nicola Peltz. The movies have earned a combined $3.76 billion at the box office.
Bay is also known for directing Armageddon and Pearl Harbor, and is producing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot films. 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghzi dramatizes the 2012 Benghazi attack, and opens in theaters Jan. 15.
