‘Transformers 5’ Eyes Nickelodeon Star Isabela Moner for Lead Role (Exclusive)

Mark Wahlberg will reprise his role as Cade Yeager in the Michael Bay-directed sequel

Isabela Moner
INGLEWOOD, CA – MARCH 12: Actress Isabela Moner attends Nickelodeon's 2016 Kids' Choice Awards at The Forum on March 12, 2016 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

Up-and-coming actress Isabela Moner is being eyed for a lead role opposite Mark Wahlberg in Paramount’s “Transformers 5,” an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap.

Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Michael Bay is returning to direct the action-packed sequel, which boasts the involvement of executive producer Steven Spielberg as well as a litany of writers including Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman.

Moner is poised to play the young female lead of Izabella, a street-smart tomboy who grew up an orphan and was raised in foster care. She counts a small Transformer as her only friend… until she meets Wahlberg’s heroic inventor Cade Yeager.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Don Murphy and Tom DeSanto will produce “Transformers 5” with Hasbro, and Paramount will release the film on June 23, 2017. Production is slated to start this summer in Detroit.

There may be a hint of corporate synergy behind Moner’s expected casting, as the rising young actress is a Nickelodeon star whose credits include “100 Things to Do Before High School” and the animated series “Dora and Friends: Into the City!” She recently wrapped CBS Films’ comedy “Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life,” based on the series of books by James Patterson. The Cleveland native is also slated to star in a movie based on the TV show “Legends of the Hidden Temple” that was popular in the mid-’90s.

Moner is represented by CESD, Untitled Entertainment and Peikoff Mahan Law Office.

Comments