Mark Wahlberg has been on his A-game for a while now. From starring in multiple big-budget productions and taking home heft paychecks, the actor has been having the time of his life in Hollywood. While his movies might not always receive a ton of praise from the critics, they sure are pretty entertaining.

Mark Wahlberg
Mark Wahlberg also became a part of the extremely popular Transformers franchise as he played the role of Cade Yeager. The actor made his Transformers debut with Age of Extinction, a film that made over a billion dollars at the box office!

Of course, there was no way Mark Wahlberg would sit out the next film after witnessing such success, and a fresh script sure helped him make his decision concretely.

Mark Wahlberg Loved the Script of Transformers 5
Mark Wahlberg and Laura Haddock in Transformers 5

After knocking it out of the park with Transformers: Age of Extinction, Mark Wahlberg wanted to do something different with Transformers: The Last Knight.  Luckily, the film’s fresh script brought his thoughts to life. Talking to Collider, Wahlberg stated that he was pleasantly surprised after reading the film’s script and how it was a “nice departure” from its predecessor.

“I was pleasantly surprised, you want to do something different and being this kind of ‘man on the run’ adventure story is a nice departure from what we did before.”
 Not only did Transformers 5 offer Wahlberg an out-of-the-box script, but it also gave his character a love interest. Laura Haddock played the role of Viviane Wembley, who Wahlberg says is smart and sophisticated.
“It introduces new cool characters and Cade’s got this great relationship with this smart, sophisticated English woman and that creates a lot of humor, and there’s a lot of new characters that are cool.”

When asked if it was true that Cade and Viviane have a lot of back and forth going on in the film, the Ted actor replied in an affirmative. He stated, that neither of the characters was a pushover and the constant back and forth delivered great comedy.
“Yes, which is fun because by the time I get to England I’m definitely a fish out of water, but Cade’s not pushover either so between Anthony [Hopkins]’s character, her (Laura Haddock) character, there’s a lot of great comedy that comes from that, a lot of things to play off of. I certainly try to give them a run for their money.”
The film went on to make a little over $605 million at the box office on a budget of $217-260 million. While this might seem like a good run at first glance, it certainly was not the case. According to reports, the film lost Paramount more than a $100 million and was a commercial failure. Wahlberg did not return to reprise his character in the next film.

Why Wasn’t Mark Wahlberg in Rise of the Beasts?
A still from Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
If fans were looking forward to seeing Cade in the newest addition to the franchise, they sure were met with disappointment. Wahlberg did not reprise his role in the movie and there is a pretty solid reason why. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts went in a different direction than what fans saw in Michael Bay’s films.

The film takes place years and years before the events of Bay’s films even took place. Obviously, this makes the appearance of Cade, a human, absolutely impossible. According to this timeline, it will be a while before Cade meets the famous Optimus Prime.

Will Wahlberg be seen in any of the future Transformers films? Not as long as Bay does not come back. Before the film’s screening, the actor made it clear that the fifth film was going to be his last. Wahlberg stated, “This will be the last one in the series [for me], Michael Bay says it’s the last one, so that means it’s going to be my last one.”

Since Bay is burned out by all the Transformers films he has made and does not plan on returning to the director’s chair, it’s safe to say that Wahlberg won’t be reprising his role either.