Wahlberg: Bay Will Direct Transformers 5

In an interview with Collider to promote Ted 2, Mark Wahlberg indicate he thinks Michael Bay will be back in the director's chair for Transformers 5.

Collider: Do you have any update on the status of Transformers 5? Have you heard anything about what’s going on?
WAHLBERG: I don’t. Just that Akiva [Goldsman] and those guys are starting to write and break stories, and stuff like that. But [Michael] Bay is in Malta shooting Benghazi, and I’m in New Orleans shooting Deepwater. We’ll get together when he gets back.

Do you think he’ll still ultimately direct it?
WAHLBERG: Yes.

Do you know what your schedule will be, after you finish Deepwater Horizon?
WAHLBERG: Pete [Berg] and I are talking about doing another movie, after the first of the year. And (directors) Sean Anders and John Morris are working on something right now, that hopefully we’re going to do in the fall with Paramount. That’s another comedy, more in the vein of Midnight Run meets Planes, Trains and Automobiles. I just did Daddy’s Home, with Will Ferrell and those guys, and we’ve been talking about doing this thing.

I would be very surprised if Michael Bay turns down the chair. The Transformers franchise is essentially his puppy to do with as he will, something no other Hollywood director except maybe Spielberg and Peter Jackson has had. It is a rare level of power and even rarer level of wealth that doing each film brings him (~$100 million per). That is something that few could turn down as it would be like you saying no to a winning life-changing lottery ticket. Paramount and Hasbro have already bumped Transformers 5 back a year to accommodate Bay's desire to do a smaller scale movie and decompress after Transformers 4 so clearly they want him back. At this point the decision will probably hinge on what the Transformers Writers Room produces and does the resulting scripts interest him enough to continue on. Regardless of his choice to direct, he will always be an executive producer for the Transformers franchise with the influence that title brings on future movies.