RUMOR: Jason Statham Is Joining Transformers 4 Afterall?

The Transfomers franchise might be void of any real storytelling or characters but it's been a monster at the box office raking in around $2.6 billion worldwide. Over the summer it was rumored that British action star Jason Statham was going to replace Shia LaBeouf in Transformers 4. While Michael Bay's involvement has yet to be official yet the studio seems to be pushing for the fourth and fifth film. There seems to be vague confirmation via Twitter from stars Tyrese Gibson and Ken Jeong that "J.S" is going the cast.

I've had hate and love for the Transformers franchise enjoying the action scenes but loath Sam and his useless/unfunny comedic sub-plots. Also, the character designs of some of the robots have been beyond odd and even racist at times. I'm not sure how robots age, grow hair or even have lips (gold teeth?). However, the last installment's set pieces were stunning and I even liked how humans looked when they were vaporized into skeletons. The idea that Jason Statham could be the new face of the franchise gives me hope it could be moving in a better direction.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was recently brought in to boost appeal for both Fast Five and G.I. Joe Retaliation, giving both films much needed action star credibility. The former ended up being the biggest film of the Fast And Furious franchise leading Johnson to possibly return for the sixth film (also rumored to include Statham). With Retaliation, he's pretty much taken over the franchise from Channing Tatum (Duke) and looks like he's going to be very entertaining. This could be a similar move with hiring Statham for the next Transformers sequel.

Jason Statham To Headline Transformers 4 & 5?

Variety reports that Michael Bay and producer Steven Spielberg are in talks to make more installments to the Transformers franchise. They also state that Transformers 4 and Transformers 5 could very well shoot at the same time. Considering how much money these movies make the studio it would make sense they would want to release two films soon. While the quality of the films are suspect in my opinion having the worst voice/acting and overall dialog in a blockbuster series. There is a glimmer of hope that a new direction could be in the cards. British action star Jason Statham has been rumored to be taking over the franchise from Shia.

It seems like a similar move made by studios to bring in Dwayne Johnson to boost the action-creditability of G.I. Joe 2 and Fast Five. Shia is a man in a boy's body at this point and hasn't really ever been believable as the film's leading man, none of the male actors have. The studio would be wise to go more full on action. So that Sam's side stories don't effect the pacing and the less comic relief the better. It would be nice if they hired a professional to run and jump around while being able to fire off guns.

I can't say that I'll ever be looking forward to more Transformers films but that might light a fire under the studio, since I'm not the only hater of the franchise. There are also people who enjoyed the first film but got burned by the terrible sequels. If Bay is able to make a "serious" Transformers film pumping in new blood with actual action stars it might turn my opinion around. However, with the last installment it didn't seem that Bay actually listened to what fans and critics alike hated about the first sequel. So they very well could continue what's been dragging down the quality.