Let’s clear something up right out of the gate. Many people misunderstand the word “auteur” and take it to be a testament to the subject’s talent as an artist. This is not the case. An auteur is simply someone whose films can be identified as their own based on how the film presents itself. The auteur film can be good or bad, but are always distinctly from the mind of their creators. The auteur’s mortal essence is their calling card. 5u4565

Notable auteurs include Yasujirō Ozu, Lars von Trier, Wes Anderson, David Lynch, and Quentin Tarantino, but the subject of today’s topic is Michael Bay, who absolutely qualifies as an auteur given his unique filmmaking techniques that, presumably, are engineered specifically to create intestinal dissonance and yet-to-be-discovered neurological diseases. Such is the legacy of his Transformers run, which Paramount Plus subscribers are unthinkably subjecting themselves to at the moment.

Per FlixPatrol, this day of Oct. 18 has seen not one, not two, but three different Bay-era Transformers films shoehorn their way into the Paramount Plus film rankings in the United Kingdom. At once defined almost entirely by how loud and incoherent they are, Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon have long since gone down in history as some of the most notoriously rancid efforts to ever come out of the Hollywood machine.

Bay once hit back at his critics by saying he makes movies for teenage boys, perhaps not appreciating that teenage boys are not defined by ogling at Megan Fox and cynically-constructed robot battles, and in fact deserve stories that don’t forsake their capacity for genuine emotion or try and irresponsibly appeal to the less-savory aspects of their developing masculine identities. Don’t put your shortcomings on the teens, Bay; do better.

In any case, Transformers has long since ended that toxic relationship, having since branched out into the likes of Bumblebee, an origin story for the titular yellow Autobot refreshingly rooted in a story about family and belonging; Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, a somewhat-successful merging of the Bay-era scope and the Bumblebee emotional core that also made the insane decision to kick off a Hasbro Cinematic Universe that’s probably already dead in the water; and Transformers One, the first film in a brand new Transformers continuity whose deft storytelling intelligence is matched only by the assuredness of its identity as a popular IP film.

It’s that last one that stands out as the true vanguard of Transformers‘ cinematic potential. Without the encumbrance of the Bay-plagued canon, Transformers One was able to build its world from the ground up, complete with a vibe that was capable of wonder, laughter, intensity and heartbreak. All this, while remaining entire faithful to the essence of the characters that have been garnering fans for generations; Transformers One, you see, understands that the key to adapting popular IPs lies not in respecting canon, but respecting history.

So if you’re in the U.K. and you’re planning to queue up some Bay schlock on Paramount Plus, you’re much better off taking a jaunt down to the cinema and catching the still-playing Transformers One on the big screen. Besides, the proposed trilogy for this new canon hinges on box office success, so you’d also be able to check off your weekly good deed in the process.

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Just when the MCU should be bringing its stars back together ahead of Avengers 5 and Secret Wars, it looks like one of its longest-lasting leads and one of its most-anticipated newcomers could be jumping ship to other rival franchises.

There’s nothing wrong with sharing, sure, but with release dates rushing towards us and actors’ schedules filling up, these two exciting opportunities for these individual performers might spell bad news for the Marvel universe as a whole.

Chris Hemsworth could star in Paramount’s answer to The Avengers that no one wants to see 5o6p6a

Brace yourselves, Peter Cullen collective, because Chris Hemsworth is taking over as Optimus Prime for this summer’s animated film Transformers One. Intriguingly, it’s possible he could reprise his role in live-action movies too. According to Deadline, the Australian Avenger is in talks to star in the much-threatened Transformers vs. G.I. Joe crossover, which was teased against our will at the end of Rise of the Beasts. A voiceover role shouldn’t preclude him from doing Thor V, but it’s surprising that he could miss Avengers 5 to do another multi-franchise event flick.

Mahershala Ali eyeing up a Jurassic role doesn’t bode well for Blade‘s chances 6j33d

Marvel’s Blade reboot is still technically scheduled to hit cinemas on Nov. 7, 2025, but anyone who still believes it’ll make that probably also thinks Tom Holland can really climb walls. With less than 18 months to go and no production start in sight, the horror-flavored film isn’t getting here until 2026 at the earliest, let’s be real. That is, assuming Mahershala Ali is still interested in making it at all. Similar to Hemsworth, he’s also been hoovered up by a rival franchise — Jurassic World 4, also starring Marvel’s own Scarlett Johansson. Honestly, after five years and counting stuck in development hell, we wouldn’t blame Ali for climbing out of his coffin to go fight some dinosaurs.

Scarlet Witch lives? Marvel rumored to be hiring director for Wanda Maximoff movie 3n5938

We know, we’ve been hearing whispers about Wanda Maximoff’s return to the land of the living for a long time now, and… Well, OK, this is still just a whisper, but it’s a slightly more robust one, at least. The latest word on the streets (of Westview) is that Marvel is secretly on the hunt for a director to helm a Scarlet Witch movie. That’s almost too good to be true, so we should probably retain some healthy skepticism for the moment, but it surely can’t be long before the studio brings back one of its biggest guns to help end the Multiverse Saga with a little magic.

While Disney and Marvel drag their feet in making the next Avengers film, it seems a rival studio has decided to take the initiative instead and has gathered together a whole host of Marvel’s best and brightest to star in a major blockbuster in a completely different cinematic universe.

What was the Transformers franchise in desperate need of, apart from 1000% less Michael Bay and zero further attempts to give us a G.I. Joe crossover no one cares about? That’s right, it needed some MCU magic. So enter Transformers One, a new animated movie heading for theaters this fall that features a star-studded cast — and includes the reunion of two Avengers who haven’t appeared in the same film since Endgame.

Transformers One is the backdoor Marvel team-up movie for you as we wait for Avengers 5 5g5k4d

Coming across like the Transformers answer to Pixar’s Lightyear, the animated prequel likewise casts a Marvel Chris as a sci-fi action figure hero in order to tell an origins story that probably doesn’t need telling. Hemsworth stars as a young Optimus Prime, called Orion Pax, with Eternals and Spider-Verse star Brian Tyree Henry playing his best pal, D-16, who we know is destined to become his nemesis, Megatron.

Meanwhile, Black Widow herself is teaming up with her Asgardian co-star once more as Scarlett Johansson is playing female Transformers Evita-1. The Marvel star power doesn’t end there, either, as Laurence Fishburne — Silver Surfer, Bill Foster in the Ant-Man movies and the Beyonder in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur — is likewise in the mix. And lest we forget Jon Hamm, who was going to be Mr. Sinister in Fox’s X-Men universe before that died a death. Meanwhile, co-stars Keegan-Michael Key and Steve Buscemi are bound to make MCU appearances at some point.

Despite being the biggest, most reliable money-making franchise on the planet, the next chapter in the Avengers saga is taking its sweet time in getting here, something that Bob Iger can’t be happy about. So it’s only adding insult to injury that Paramount’s over here bringing Avengers back together to line its own pockets. Transformers One – Marvel Zero, you might say.

We loved the new additions to the colorful cast of characters in the second season of Invincible. The voice cast is stacked with familiar names including Phil LaMarr, Tim Robinson and Rob Delaney, but there’s also a member of voice-acting royalty ing the party.

Peter Cullen, best known for being the one and only voice for the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, has ed the cast of the Amazon original series. Cullen has achieved legendary status in the industry for his four decades of work on Transformers. Over that time he’s voiced (almost) every iteration of Optimus Prime, including the Michael Bay movies and most recently in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.

So it’s safe to say he’s been a big part of every Transformers fan’s childhood, and that includes Invincible creator Robert Kirkman himself. Whilst speaking to Polygon, Kirkman expressed his excitement at getting to work with Cullen.

“Just flat-out, every fiber of my being was screaming, Don’t ask him about Optimus Prime. Don’t talk about Optimus Prime. What are you doing? Just be a professional, come on.”

It turns out even one of the most successful comic book writers of this decade can get a little flustered in the presence of Peter Cullen. 

But who does Peter Cullen voice in the second season? 3w81c

His voice is iconic and instantly recognisable, so if you’ve been paying attention to the latest episodes of Invincible you may have already recognized him. Cullen portrays Thaedus, the leader of the coalition planets, a group dedicated to fighting against the Viltrumites and their tyranny over other planets.

The character’s first appearance is in the third episode of season 2, although he’s a pretty big player in the overall story so we’ll likely be seeing more of him in the future.

This week, actor Josh Duhamel and his wife Audra Mari announced that they were expecting a baby together. The child is the first of the couple, and second overall for Duhamel. Posting on their Instagram page in a t announcement, the photo shows Mari’s hand holding a set of sonogram photos of their unborn child, next to some white flowers. “Baby Duhamel coming soon”, they wrote, followed by a white heart emoji.

Josh Duhamel began his career as an actor as Leo Du Pres in the long-running soap opera All My Children. Duhamel is perhaps known for his roles in the Transformers movies, as well as for portraying the character of Danny McCoy in the comedy-drama series Las Vegas. More recently, Duhamel starred as the titular character’s father in the LGBTQ+ teen movie Love, Simon, as well as the romantic action-comedy Shotgun Wedding.

Previously, Duhamel was married to musician Fergie, known for both her solo career and as a member of the Black Eyed Peas. Duhamel and Fergie, whose real name is Stacy Ann Ferguson, married in 2009 after five years of dating. The former couple had one son, Axl, before separating in 2017. Their divorce was finalized in 2019.

Duhamel and Mari began dating in 2018, and got engaged in 2022, marrying later that year. On the couple’s Instagram announcement, Duhamel’s ex-wife, Fergie, congratulated her former husband. “I am truly happy for you guys,” the musician wrote. “Axl can’t wait to be a big brother.”

Who is Audra Mari? 5c1542

Audra Mari is a model and former beauty queen, holding three titles across four pageants. Mari was born in 1994 and was raised in North Dakota, where she won her first titles. Mari was first-runner-up for Miss Teen USA 2011, representing her home state, before winning Miss North Dakota USA in 2014. Later, Mari ranked in the top 11 for Miss World 2016. As the top-ranking American — both of the U.S. and of the American continents — in the competition, Mari was granted the title of Miss World Americas the same year.

Outside of pageants, Audra Mari has worked as a model for numerous fashion brands. Later, she worked on television, presenting travel and shopping programs across multiple TV channels. It was during this time she met Josh Duhamel. The couple share a 21-year age difference, and last year, poked fun at their age gap by dressing as Anna Nicole Smith and J Howard Marshall for Halloween. At the time, Smith and Marshall were the couple with the world’s largest age gap, at the age of 22 and 89, respectively.

Through no fault of his own, Blue Beetle director Angel Manuel Soto has been left to pick up the pieces of the outgoing DCEU’s latest failure, with Jaime Reyes’ origin story becoming the superhero franchise’s third release this year alone to go down in a ball of box office flames.

It’s clear that the comic book saga is coming perilously close to running out of gas, creating the curious situation where Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom might genuinely be in danger of following suit despite its status as the highest-grossing adaptation in company history that netted well over a billion dollars.

Clearly immune to the perils of jumping onto a sinking ship, Soto confirmed in an interview with Collider that he’s still attached to the standalone Transformers feature first announced back in 2021, which presents its own set of dangers when the multi-billion dollar IP has just delivered its lowest-grossing installment for the third time in a row.

“I pitched them an idea. I read a script, I didn’t like it, and I pitched them a whole different idea, and they liked it, but then it was too late. So they told me, “Yeah, we cannot do your idea, but we like your idea, so we want you to write the idea and then direct it.” So, we’ve been in that process, but the writers’ strike happened. It will be different, it will be different.”

There’s a G.I. Joe crossover in the works, too, which makes hardly any sense from a fiscal perspective when Rise of the Beasts set a new Transformers low and the former has gone zero-for-three in its cinematic history so far, but perhaps some of that distinct Blue Beetle style and verve is exactly what the flagging property needs. Then again, a lot of people said the same thing when Creed II‘s Steven Caple Jr. signed on for the seventh chapter, and we all know how that turned out.

From the outside looking in, it makes no sense for Paramount to decide that now is the best time to have the Transformers and G.I. Joe franchises cross over, unless of course it’s one final roll of the dice for both of them.

Each of the last three entries in the never-ending saga of the Autobots and Deticons has earned less than its predecessor, with Rise of the Beasts exiting theaters as the lowest-grossing entry in the entire seven-film series. Meanwhile, the Joes were barely profitable across The Rise of Cobra and Retaliation, before Snake Eyes bombed horrendously.

In essence, what you’ve got is two flagging brands both coming off their worst-performing installments yet, so the prospect of having them integrated sounds more like a threat than a promise of top-tier blockbuster action. One person who its that G.I. Joe wasn’t their finest moment is Snake Eyes star Andrew Koji, who got drawn into sharing his feelings while speaking to Inverse about the awesome Warrior.

“After this, it could just all be downhill for me. But at least for now [my experience on Warrior] makes me go, “Okay, I’d like to do stuff with integrity.” And G.I. Joe really wasn’t that, was it? Hollywood is just obsessed with telling the same old thing over and again. Firstly, remakes. Secondly, it’s got to be based on IP. Third, it’s so absurd because I’m just like, hold on. People want originality. Where is it? What is going on here?

Snake Eyes didn’t do too well, which I knew it wasn’t going to. I think they’re probably going to reboot from the ground up. I’m cool. I did like Storm Shadow Tommy. I found a way to love him and I think there would’ve been something to do … there would’ve been a really cool Storm Shadow film if they did it right.”

You can’t say he doesn’t have a point, and Koji is self-aware enough to realize that Snake Eyes won’t be featured in any career retrospectives decades down the line. At least he enjoyed playing his character, and he was undoubtedly one of the sole bright spots in an otherwise turgid mess, but don’t expect him to come running back should the Transformers crossover extend an invitation his way.

It’s been obvious to everybody except Paramount that audiences lost interest in the Transformers franchise almost a decade ago when Michael Bay’s Age of Extinction became the saga’s second consecutive billion-dollar hit.

Earnings dropped by over $500 million by the time The Last Knight rolled around, before they dipped again despite Bumblebee scoring better reviews than Bay’s final four features combined. Refusing to learn its lesson, this year’s Rise of the Beasts was dubbed the start of an entire trilogy, only to leave theaters by setting another record low for the exhausted saga of Autobots and Decepticons.

With $436 million in the tank, Steven Caple Jr. at least managed to avoid delivering an out-and-out bomb, although you’ve got to wonder why the decision was made to set up a crossover with another Hasbro/Paramount property that currently boasts a zero-for-three track record.

Rise of Cobra, Retaliation, and Snake Eyes all under-performed to varying degrees, and having conspired to make the last three Transformers films each assume control of the “lowest-earning” tag, crossing the latter over with G.I. Joe surely seems doomed to fail unless there’s some sort of divine intervention from the gods of cinema.

We’ve already had 10 of these damned things separately, and the evidence is there for all to see that nobody cares anymore, and yet neither franchise is anywhere close to being over. We’ll just have to wait for Transformers/G.I. Joe to arrive and be ignored, then, because apparently nobody got the memo that smashing two flagging brands together isn’t the smartest move to try and revive their flailing individual or collective fortunes.

The Lego Movie proved that just because a movie is basically a toy commercial, it doesn’t have to be bad. The Transformers franchise, two out of three live action G.I. Joe movies, and 2011’s Battleship proved that not everything is The Lego Movie. 

But darn it all, that won’t stop Hasbro from branching out into the cinematic universe market, a tactic which, over the last 20 years, has gone famously well for franchises including Marvel and that’s the end of the list. The final moments of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts beckoned in a new era in which Autobots and G.I. Joes stand side by side. Fun? Sure. But is it enough?

Never. Nothing is ever enough. It’s time for Hasbro Entertainment to dump its Rubbermaid tub of action figures on the carpet and give us the billion-dollar CGI nonsense battle royale of intellectual properties that we earned, as a society, the second we stuck Chris Pratt on a motorcycle with velociraptors. Let’s get the Russo Brothers directing a three-part Scrabble crossover with the Weebles, and weep as a nation when, in a moment of heroic self sacrifice, the letter K falls down. Let’s see what life looks like through the eyes of a Go-Bot raised in a town made of Lincoln Logs. The question isn’t where to start, the question is where to stop. The answer is “never.” Here are some jumping off points, pulled straight from Wikipedia’s list of Hasbro properties.

6: Rock Lords b3266

Based on what we’ve seen so far, it goes without saying that the higher-ups at Hasbro would sooner die choking on a Mighty Max than let the GoBots brand go un-adapted. It’s a movie about rocks that turn into robots, or maybe the other way around. It’s not important, the writers can figure that part out.

What is important is that, at the end of the movie, an enigmatic gentleman approaches Boulder, the fearsome tungsten leader of the heroic Rock Lords. This stranger says that he could use the help of a rock that turns into something, or maybe the other way around – again, that’s the writers’ problem. He hands Boulder a business card, identifying himself as Alpine, the expert mountain climber from the elite covert special operations unit known as G.I. Joe. Social media flips its lid.

5: Zack Snyder’s Littlest Pet Shop v My Little Pony: Friendship Was Never an Option 1o2m3t

Okay, so here’s the elevator pitch: There’s this pet shop, right? A really little one. They specialize in unnaturally small pets with very large eyes. They’re on the brink of fiscal insolvency, on of how all living things get terrifying when you shrink them down to a fraction of their regular size and give them giant eyeballs. It’s what scientists call “The Kristin Chenoweth Effect.”

Then, a breakthrough. The proprietor of the pet shop – which is little, maybe even the most little – discovers a species of sentient horses, also small. Customers go crazy for these things. The supply simply can’t keep up with the demand. The pet shop employees organize a raid on Equestria a la that scene from The Lost World where the corporation goes on dinosaur safari. The ponies, in direct contradiction to their edict regarding the magic of friendship, must go to war to protect their freedom. An hour and 45 minutes of speed-ramped, desaturated, blood-soaked action commences.

In the aftermath of the battle, the Littlest Pet Shop is visited by a mysterious figure, accompanied by his pet rottweiler, who says that he could make use of the business’s obviously war-ready creatures. In tandem, he and the dog hand over their business cards, identifying them as Mutt and Junkyard from the elite covert special operations unit known as G.I. Joe. The internet goes crazy.

4: Bop It: Chapter One 275u5x

A CGI animated feature. The citizens of Bop Town live a simple, blissful life, bopping rocks in the bop mines to the rhythm of the all-encoming voice in the sky. “Bop It!” the voice shouts, and they do, never stopping to think of what life might be like if they didn’t bop it.

But one little boy from Bop Town isn’t content to spend his life bopping things. He dreams of a world with two, maybe as many as four other options. Misunderstood and alone, he runs from his home, embarking on a journey that will take him to the Village of Twist and through Pull Valley, making friends along the way. Through the power of teamwork and turn-taking, he and his found family will face off against the villainous wizard Lord Not-Bopping-Or-Pulling-Or-Twisting-It-Fast-Enough. Celebrity voices are going to do a lot of the heavy lifting here in of drumming up audience interest. 

Duke from the elite covert special operations unit known as G.I. Joe makes a cameo at the end – something about how he could use some help bopping Cobra. There’s a business card involved. It’s not Hasbro’s best crossover. 

3: A direct, unflinching big-budget adaptation of Beetleborgs 1k5k4l

‘90s kids will Big Bad Beetleborgs as the thing that their aunts got them for their birthday by accident instead of Power Rangers. If you’re not familiar, this show was stop-me-before-I-kill-again crazy. It was about three kids who got beetle-based super powers from a Jay Leno impersonator in a house full of Universal movie monsters. It lasted 88 episodes. None of this is a lie.

And Hasbro needs to embrace that. Don’t change a thing. Kids – especially contemporary kids – love Jay Leno, beetles, and Boris Karloff references. This movie needs to take the oversaturated second-string prepubescent Power Rangers and change them not one iota. Script to screen, tell the story of the Beetleborgs exactly the way it was told on Fox Kids back in 1996, only make it cost $235 million.

Epilogue: During the credits, Bumblebee from Transformers approaches the Beetleborgs. He explains that bumblebees and beetles are both bugs, so there’s a conceptual throughline here. Then he tells the Beetleborgs about these cool guys he just met from G.I. Joe, and he shows them the cool business card that they gave him. Film twitter messes its britches. 

2: Potato Headwig  1b2h3o

Chasing the heated, inescapable controversy from a couple of years ago RE: whether or not potatoes are boys, this shot-for-shot remake of Hedwig and the Angry Inch explores the complex nuances of gender identity as viewed through the lens of a plastic root vegetable that you can stick a mustache on. 

At the end, after Potato Head has transcended societal expectations and ceded their stage persona to their long-suffering partner and guitarist, a Tonka truck, they are approached by a mysterious figure. He provides Potato Head with a business card, identifying himself as Zartan, Cobra’s resident master of disguise. He has work for a chameleonic potato, he says. Roll credits. The message boards lose their minds.

1: Tiger Electronics LCD Handheld Games in 3D 1r3yy

For an hour and a half, audiences watch a single, static wide shot of Mainframe from G.I. Joe, wordlessly playing through a stack of LCD handheld games by Tiger Electronics – Aladdin, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, Electronic Football. After beating the final game, he stands up, wipes his nose, and looks directly into the camera. “Well, now I know how to beat all those games,” he says. 

He shuffles his feet self consciously for a full minute, then looks back at the camera. 

“And knowing is–” and before he can finish, he’s cut off by the credits.

It was reported that whistleblower, David Grush claimed that the U.S. government hid a ‘multi-decade’ UFO program from the public and that it has detected numerous unidentified flying objects. While the government denied these claims, this latest news meant one thing, aliens may be among us.

Generally, most science fiction titles depict intergalactic species as scary and harmful creatures who want to rule over humanity. Fortunately, others have been friendly, peaceful, and misunderstood. So if there is any confirmation that aliens live among us, here are some species shown in movies that are worth being friends with.

10. E.T. (E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial) 541k6o

Who wouldn’t want to be friends with E.T.? He’s harmless, friendly, and safe with kids. After all, this alien wants to collect plant samples and they do come in peace. Thank goodness the children that found him didn’t see this creature as a threat and wanted to keep him safe. If E.T. could make traveling more convenient by making my bike fly up in the air, I wouldn’t see this alien as a threat.

9. Megamind (Megamind) 125b36

Megamind isn’t evil. He’s just misunderstood. After all, he was raised by prisoners which led to his life of crime. In reality, all he wanted was a friend and some attention. If a Megamind-like species enters Earth, we’d best welcome them with open arms, or else all that hate and prejudice could lead to them ruling over humanity.

8. The Doctor (Doctor Who: The Movie) 83g42

The Doctor is an eccentric character with the ability to travel across time and space. Only a handful of people get the opportunity to travel with this Time Lord, whilst knowing that their life would be in constant danger or that their feelings of love and iration wouldn’t be reciprocated. Once you know these risks and accept them, then befriending The Doctor shouldn’t be a problem. Just make sure to run and don’t blink.

Speaking of eccentric characters, Pleakley is another alien worth befriending. Not only does he have some interest in the planet Earth, but is also someone who loves fashion and dress-ups. Going to the mall with Pleakley for clothing advice would be an amazing opportunity. Just hope he has the time for it, considering he sometimes helps Stitch find his “cousins.”

6. The Max Rebo Band (Star Wars) 64714f

Is it possible to be friends with the Max Rebo band? After all, they’re an intergalactic music sensation that mostly performs in Tatooine, so they might be too busy forge to friendships. Then again, making your way into the life of a celebrity isn’t an impossible task. Just look at Twilight fan Taylor Dome, who married Taylor Lautner. So the odds of befriending the Max Rebo Band shouldn’t be difficult if they go on tour on Earth. Just hope Ticketmaster doesn’t mess with your chances to meet them in person.

5. The Crystal Gems (Steven Universe: The Movie) 2q58i

The Crystal Gems were an interesting bunch of aliens. They’ve walked amongst humans for centuries, protecting the Earth from the threats of Homeworld, whilst also finding ways to co-exist with organic life. Each of the Crystal Gems has interesting and unique personality to the point that they act similar to humans, just without the need to eat. It would be cool to go on epic adventures with these gem-like species, even if it was for just a little while.

4. Bumblebee (Transformers) 2z5241

Out of all the Autobots featured in the Transformers film franchise, Bumblebee must be the friendliest of them all. He’s willing to protect its human from threats like the Decepticons and was willing to stay with Sam Witwicky once the battle finished. Even when Sam told him to go with Optimus Prime because he was heading to college, he returned knowing that his friend was in danger. Now that’s what I call friendship.

3. Groot (Marvel Studios) 5ya21

Who doesn’t love Groot? Sure, his language mostly consists of three words, but if Thor could learn this alien dialect, so can we. It even doesn’t matter what Groot looks like. Whether he’s a baby, a moody teenager, or a butt-kicking adult, this sentient tree is an alien worth befriending. Perhaps we could relive that one Lord of the Rings scene if we were on good .

2. Superman (DCU) k4xd

Out of all the alien species that live on Earth, Superman is someone worth being friends with. Not only has he lived amongst the humans, he was raised by them. He was pretty much the answer as to whether humanity is alone in this universe. If this Justice League superhero was willing to be interviewed by kids for their podcast, surely befriending the Man of Steel shouldn’t be a problem.

1. Hubble (Good Boy!) 1u2v72

In this 2003 film, dogs were originally aliens from other space, so befriending this intergalactic species is something we’d already be familiar with. But what makes Hubble unique is that it’s a very intelligent dog since it was able to control a spaceship (before it crashed onto Earth) and has the technology to make humans understand them. If dogs are aliens in disguise, please let us humans understand you.

While we still don’t know if we’re truly alone in this universe, at least there is a possibility that we could forge friendships with aliens. As long as these creatures were unprovoked and we’d welcome them with open arms, there could be a future where humanity could co-exist with these extra-terrestrial beings.

The ride to Hasbro’s cinematic universe is at full steam ahead after G.I. Joe was teased in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. However, those keen to see this potential toy crossover may have to wait a bit, considering the targeted release date that has been revealed.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts‘ Lorenzo di Bonaventura revealed when G.I. Joe will make its big screen debut. In an interview with Sci-fi & Fantasy Gazette, he said that this Hasbro crossover could happen sometime in 2026. It was originally scheduled to come out in 2025, but writing was delayed due to the ongoing WGA strikes.

“It’s a good question. We were about to start a script when the writers’ strike happened. So, our hope was we were going to have it for 2025, but I think the longer the strike goes on, the more it puts it in 2026.”

G.I. Joe was teased during the end of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts when Noah was offered a position to this secret military organization. But despite these plans to bring the franchise back, it’s currently unknown if any familiar names in G.I. Joe will appear since he didn’t “plan that far ahead” for this crossover.

Bonaventura has worked on G.I Joe films in the past. Specifically, the adaptations from 2009 through 2021. Unfortunately, all three films were received quite poorly by critics on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. He also had plans to develop a pilot for a potential G.I. Joe series on Amazon, which never came to be. Perhaps, then, it was a good idea to push the release date back, considering that previous film adaptations for the franchise flopped, so that more time and care can be put into this crossover and get people excited.

However, the same could be said for the Transformers movies, since the franchise received mixed reviews amongst audiences and critics. So combining the two franchises together into one movie could be a massive gamble on Hasbro’s part. Only time will tell if the crossover will sit well with fans, whether G.I Joe can break free from this box office bomb curse.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts has been out for almost a week, so it’s only natural that we begin to shift our attention to what lies ahead for the franchise.Leaving the Michael Bay era may have been an important step all on its own, but with many a review – including our own – suggesting that the saga has risen from drowning to just treading water, we’re going to need more entries to help Bumblebee carry the series from here on out.

As a result, we’re pulling for Transformers One, the animated prequel that will serve as the property’s next step, to yield the results that Transformers needs to become worthy of its source material, and if comments made by Scarlett Johansson – who voices the Autobot Elita – are any indication, we just might be able to expect that.

In an interview with Collider, Johansson was all to happy to shout her praise of the in-development feature, giving an extra special nod to writer-director Josh Cooley, who seems intent on tackling the Transformers ethos in a way we haven’t seen on the big screen before.

“The film doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen before, it looks so cool! The texture of it is so awesome. And because Josh wrote it, it just feels very… I don’t know, it’s got a very dramatic feeling about it. It’s funny, but it’s got so much heart to it like all of his stuff does. I think it’s a different way of approaching this IP. I think it stands on its own, it’s pretty exciting.”

The film will be set on the Transformers’ homeworld of Cybertron, explore the relationship between Optimus Prime and Megatron, and will star the voice talents of Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry as the two respective juggernauts, as well as Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm, and Laurence Fishburne alongside Johansson.

Transformers One is set to arrive in theaters on Sept. 13, 2024.