Animated Transformers prequel film rolling out with Toy Story 4 director

Hasbro and Paramount have reportedly hired Toy Story 4's Oscar-winning director Josh Cooley to helm a Transformers animated prequel film. According to Deadline, who first reported the news, the theatrical feature will take place on Cyberton and focus on the relationship between Optimus Prime and Megatron.

Cooley is reportedly working on a final draft of the script with Ant-Man and the Wasp writers Andrew Barrer & Gabriel Ferrari. Hasbro/eOne will produce alongside Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian. The prequel will stand apart from previously released live action Transformers films like 2018's Bumblebee.

The animated film is rumored to be an origin story, though not many more details are known at this time. The announcement of the prequel builds on previous reports that Hasbro is looking for ways to expand the incredibly popular Transformers universe.

News of the animated film prequel is only one part of how the universe is getting a revamp. Earlier this year Variety reported on Paramount's work on at least two future Transformers scripts — one from James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) and the other by Joby Harold (Edge of Tomorrow).

In addition to numerous feature-film length projects, there's a lot happening on the shorter length animation side as well. In February, Netflix released the trailer for its upcoming anime series Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy – Siege. The anime follows the legendary conflict between the Autobots and the Decepticons on their home planet of Cybertron as they seek the source of the Allspark. While there's no official release date, we expect the Netflix series to be released sometime in 2020.

The franchise has been one of the most popular and lucrative for Paramount Pictures since the first Transformers film was released in 2007.

(via Deadline)