It's been general knowledge since Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was confirmed as Megan Fox's replacement in Transformers 3 that the Victoria's Secret model would be the new object of affection for the franchise's human protagonist, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf).

We now know that her character will be named Carly and - though you should DEFINITELY take this next statement with a healthy grain of salt - that she could possibly become Mrs. Witwicky by the time the end credits for the third Transformers flick begin to roll.

This idea stems from the fact that the Sam Witwicky character in the original 1980s animated Transformers TV show - back then he was called Spike, not Sam - eventually married a young woman named Carly.  Although it is pure speculation at this point, history could very well repeat itself in Transformers 3.

The film will hopefully have a more coherent plot than Transformers 2, though that's no guarantee that the human characters will be any less one-dimensional than they were in previous franchise installments.

Sam (LaBeouf) and Mikaela (Fox) did fall in love in the first Transformers by basically running around together the whole time and not getting blown up - maybe Sam and Carly will decide to get married after they have a single conversation.

Clearly, Sam needs to re-watch Speed and heed Sandra Bullock's warning about the dangers of starting a relationship under extreme circumstances. ;-)

How Mikaela was written out of the Transformers 3 screenplay and replaced with "Carly" remains to be seen for now - I can't help but be suspicious that it will feel awkward in the final product.  Maybe Michael Bay is hoping that moviegoers will be too taken with the film's 3D effects and Huntington-Whiteley's, um, assets, to care.

People still flock to these movies to see CG robots fighting and stuff going "boom!" - not believable character arcs.  So long as we get less of Sam's mother getting high on weed-filled brownies, nobody will really care what the humans do, right?

Transformers 3 arrives in regular and 3D theaters in the U.S. on July 1st, 2011.

Source: TFW