The prospect of a Transformers One sequel ever coming out is getting less likely by the day.
The animated Transformers film was released to critical acclaim in September 2024, marking the first modern film in the franchise to focus exclusively on the series' iconic shape-shifting robots.
Instead of venturing to Earth like so many of the Transformers films before, One told a prequel story based on the Transformers' home planet, Cybertron. In it, fans were taken on a journey recounting the origins of series icons Megatron and Optimus Prime as they went from friends to mortal enemies.
Why a Transformers One Sequel Is Unlikely
After Transformers One received stellar reviews upon release, it seemed like a shoo-in that it would get a sequel and start a new sub-franchise for Hasbro and Paramount, set within the iconic shape-shifting franchise.
However, as the film departs its initial release, the prospect of a second movie seems increasingly unlikely.
This is mainly because of Transformers One's dismal financial performance at the box office. While the Transformers franchise was once a bastion for box office success (even though most modern films have been deemed critical failures), that no longer looks to be the case.
Or at least, that was not the case with the animated prequel from former Pixar filmmaker Josh Cooley.
Transformers One managed to set a new low for the franchise at the box office, raking in a paltry $128,888,103 globally on a reported budget somewhere between $75 and $147 million. This is a marked downturn from the $1 billion-making machine of some of Michael Bay's live-action films.
This weak financial performance will likely be the biggest factor in deciding the fate of a potential sequel, but it is not the only one to be considered.
Transformers IP owner Hasbro recently announced it would no longer be co-financing films based on its IP (via Bloomberg). This does not mean that movies based on Hasbro properties have gone the way of Vector Prime, but studios working on projects will have to be 100% bankrolled without the help of the rightsholder.
Transformers One's streaming numbers on Paramount+ will be one thing for fans to watch. The movie arrived on the service in November, so no streaming data has been made available for the title as of writing. But if the film were to do well there, it is still possible a Transformers One sequel will eventually come out.
Potentially, a lower-budget streaming-exclusive sequel could see the light of day; however, this would likely mean the animation would be of a lower quality, and the movie's original star-studded cast would assumedly not return.
With all that said, though, it seems the animated Transformers One franchise will be (for lack of a better term) one and done, given how much pressure was put on the original film's financial performance.
In September, franchise executive producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura posited in a conversation with Screen Rant that "if we're successful with this movie, we're going to do a sequel:"
"Number one, if we're successful with this movie, we're going to do a sequel for this. And we already have, I think, the beginnings of a really interesting story for the second one, which is also character-based, the way the first [is]."
Despite critical success, the movie almost surely did not live up to the financial benchmarks of success Bonaventura and the studio set out for the film.
At least for now, it seems that the future of the Transformers franchise is in live-action, with the long-rumored Transformers x GI Joe movie still in development at Paramount.
Transformers One is streaming on Paramount+.
