Recasting prime players in flagship franchises is akin to threading the needle, perhaps even more punctilious a task than that because if you’re not careful, you’ll have a bloody mess ahead of you. Just look at how The Witcher completely upended into chaos with Henry Cavill’s replacement.
Megan Fox’s recasting in the Transformers franchise met with a similar outrage mingled with shock after Rosie Huntington-Whiteley appeared in her stead in Transformers 3. But there are more beans to be spilled here than you might reckon.
Megan Fox Was Fired From the Transformers Franchise
Transformers gifted Megan Fox with her breakout role in Hollywood, after the monumental success of which came the sci-fi action sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
With a worldwide collection just shy of a billion, the smashing triumph of the second installment laid the foundation for a third. But this time, they’d have to make do with a new Mikaela Banes because Fox would be long gone by the time Transformers 3 dropped, courtesy of comparing the director to Hitler.
In an interview with Wonderland magazine – and this is around the time when a third film had already been announced – when Fox, 38, was asked about her experience with Michael Bay, she fell short of kind words for the filmmaker, referring to him as a despot with an “infamous mad man reputation.” Yikes.
God, I really wish I could go loose on this one. He’s like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous mad man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is.
Of course, her controversial comparison went viral and the ramifications came in the form of Fox (and her character) being scrapped from Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The Till Death star, however, claimed that it was her decision to part ways with the juggernaut franchise (via Cinema Blend).
Meanwhile, Bay came with an entirely different explanation, piling it on Transformers executive producer and industry luminary Steven Spielberg instead. But that’s not all.
Steven Spielberg Had Nothing to do With Megan Fox’s Exit
Or at least that’s what the Schindler’s List creator claimed after Bay all but shot the news of Fox’s firing off Spielberg’s shoulders.
In a GQ interview, the 59-year-old Bad Boys director – who in turn pilloried Fox’s work ethic – claimed that it was Spielberg who’d demanded that the actress be fired from the franchise. “And you know, the Hitler thing,” Bay remarked. “Steven [Spielberg] said, ‘Fire her right now.'”
Given the acclaimed filmmaker’s Jewish roots, it would be understandable had that been an active choice on his part. Only, the Oscar-winning filmmaker stated otherwise. “That’s not true. That didn’t happen,” the 77-year-old told Entertainment Weekly of the incident.
At the end of the day though, Fox ended up being replaced by model and actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley instead. So, the he-said-she-said wouldn’t amount to much either way.
The Transformers movies can be streamed on Paramount+.
