This is an unexpected bit of news; it appears the fifth Transformers feature may not be the last “Knight” after all. According to Deadline, the director of the first Transformers spin-off movie, as-yet-untitled but featuring Bumblebee, will be…Travis Knight.
On the one hand, there’s some obvious logic to it. As director of Kubo and the Two Strings, he worked extensively with visual effects, integrating stop-motion and CG to a much more extensive degree than in any previous animated film. On the other, he also happens to be the president and CEO of Laika, the stop-motion studio behind Kubo that’s currently developing multiple projects. Scoring him is a coup akin to getting John Lasseter to make a non-Disney movie. 
No details of the Bumblebee movie plot have leaked yet, though Michael Bay joked that he had an R-rated idea for it. But getting an animator to direct is an interesting choice; non-Transformers fans sometimes complain they can’t tell the robots apart, and a guy at the helm whose life has been spent giving personality to inanimate objects can probably do something about that, though Bumblebee already has more personality than most.
Does this announcement “spoil” the outcome of the teased Optimus/Bumblebee fight in The Last Knight? Not necessarily. It could be a prequel. It’ll be interesting to see if Knight lets Bumblebee use his full speaking voice again, or stick to the radio-station-switching conversation of prior films. The Kubo director has such a different personality from the man most known for Transformers movies that their approaches could be, dare we say it…like Knight and Bay?
Nerdist has reached out to Paramount for independent confirmation, but had not received a response as of publication time. So now we reach out to you, readers–what do you think of the Laika CEO taking an Autobot out for a spin? “Bee” seeing you in comments to get your thoughts!
Image: Paramount
