What Happened to Sam Witwicky From the 'Transformers' Movies? His Fate Is Pretty Anticlimactic

There's a lot one can say about the Transformers live-action movies, and very little of that can be considered good. Adapting the popular franchise of shape-shifting robots that originated in the 1980s, the live-action films kicked off in 2007. Under Michael Bay's direction for the first five films released between 2007 and 2017, the franchise was often derided by critics and fans for shoddy writing, major continuity errors, and overall lack of production value as the movies chugged along.

It wasn't until the 2018 premiere of Bumblebee — a purported spin-off decidedly not directed by Michael Bay — that the film was able to garner some praise. The franchise is set to continue with the release of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which is touted as a sequel to Bumblebee rather than a continuation of the Bay films.

It's safe to say that Paramount Pictures is attempting to forget all about the blemish that Michael Bay left with his Transformers movies. But what happened to Sam Witwicky in the wake of this soft reboot era?

In case you need a refresher, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) was the main human protagonist of the first three Transformers films. He is initially introduced in the first film, having unwittingly purchased Bumblebee who is in disguise as a 1976 Chevrolet Camaro.

Through the events of the first Transformers film, Revenge of the Fallen, and Dark of the Moon, Sam is presented as an ally to the Autobots in their battle against the evil Decepticons.

Despite his major role in the first three films, Sam was mysteriously absent in the fourth film, with his role as a human ally to the Autobots having been unceremoniously replaced by struggling inventor Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg). The film makes no mention of Sam or his fellow human companions, despite the fact that he is alive and well by the end of the third film.

We don't exactly find out what happened to him until the fifth film, The Last Knight. And when we do, it's remarkably lackluster.

The Last Knight introduces Sir Edmund Burton (Anthony Hopkins) as the last in a long line of members of the "Order of Witwiccans," a secret society that has been aligned with the Autobots since the Middle Ages (which, by the way, blatantly ignores the continuity of the previous films).

Burton describes himself as the last living member of the Order and Sam is briefly referenced in the film as having apparently been part of the Order himself.

Thanks to Burton's statements, we can infer that Sam died off-screen at one point between the events of Dark of the Moon and The Last Knight. That's a pretty anticlimactic way to write off a character, but poor storytelling has never stopped Michael Bay before.

His fate may not matter, however, as the future of the Transformers live-action films seems content enough to ignore everything that Michael Bay has previously established in order to start with a clean slate.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts comes out in theaters on June 9.