Transformers Makes Mark Wahlberg’s Franchise Return Impossible

Thanks to a throwaway gag in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Mark Wahlberg’s return to the Transformers franchise is now impossible. After Shia LaBeouf starred in the first three Transformers movies as Sam Witwicky, Wahlberg took over as the lead for the fourth and fifth films. In both Transformers: Age of Extinction and Transformers: The Last Knight, Wahlberg stars as Cade Yeager, a single father and unsuccessful inventor who joins forces with the Autobots. Wahlberg wasn’t featured in the prequel, Bumblebee, and the next mainline installment, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, has a meta joke that makes Wahlberg’s return impossible.