Bumblebee was released in 2018 to the Transformers franchise's best reviews. A refreshing change of pace after Michael Bay's explosive efforts, it earned a solid $468 million at the worldwide box office on a reported budget of $102 million - $135 million.
Unfortunately, there's been no mention of a sequel, with the 90s set Transformers: Rise of the Beasts seemingly unrelated to what played out in the previous instalment.
During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss her role as Spider-Gwen in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Bumblebee lead star Hailee Steinfeld was asked if she's surprised never to have made a direct sequel to Bumblebee.
"Not necessarily. I don’t know that I knew the plans beyond that, but I like to take everything one step at a time. I’ve gotten a lot better at that in my life."
"I tend to get ahead of myself, and so when it comes to these bigger projects that have whispers and more of a future and whatnot," the actress continued, "I like to just focus on what’s in front of me and make that the best that I can."
Reiterating that Rise of the Beasts is largely unconnected to Bumblebee, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura addressed John Cena's absence from this latest movie in an interview with Screen Rant. He also dismissed the possibility that his character is, in fact, G.I. Joe's Duke!
"I can deny that [Cena's character in Bumblebee is Duke from G.I. Joe], but I could see why you'd feel that because he does have some of that energy if you would. I'd love to work with John again. He's fantastic, and hopefully, we can bring him back into the series."
That's a somewhat promising update about at least one of Bumblebee's supporting players!
While a sequel to the 2018 release doesn't appear to be in the works, we'd like to think Steinfeld might eventually get the chance to return to this franchise. Unfortunately, its human characters have never been deemed as important as the Autobots and Decepticons!
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts arrives in theaters on June 8.