It once was speculated, but now confirmed: Transformers 4 is coming in 2014, directed by Michael Bay. But with every new piece of information released about the upcoming film, it’s seeming more and more likely that’s where similarities end.
A brand new story set years in the future, new cast members, and a new direction for the next Transformers trilogy. If Bay’s most recent comments are to be believed, there’s no telling what aspects of the series will be completely re-imagined.
After much Internet discussion, Bay found the new face of the franchise in Mark Wahlberg after completing the bodybuilder-true-crime story Pain & Gain. Now, Bay is headed right back to the sky-high pyrotechnics and robot-on-robot carnage that the Transformers series has delivered time and time again.
With a fourth installment in a successful series, fans generally have an idea of exactly what to expect. But with Hasbro promising a completely new cast of humans and robots, a newer, younger protagonist, and rumors of beloved characters getting updated “redesigns,” that’s not quite the case. So not too drastic a change, just some new robots and young leads to attract key demographics, with new paint jobs, glowing lights or dubstep-ified Autobots, right?
In an interview with Forbes, Michael Bay reiterated that fans shouldn’t just expect more of the same. In fact, Transformers 4 may hold a few substantial surprises:
“We’re going to start off smaller. There’s a brand new cast. To freshen the franchise we’ve redesigned everything from top to bottom. The history of the first three movies is still there, we start four years later and there’s a reason why we’re meeting a new cast.
“Mark is really excited about it and it’s a great redesign. I said that 3 [which grossed $1.1 billion] was going to be my last one. Paramount was letting me do Pain & Gain and the Transformers ride was opening at Universal and it was bittersweet to think of passing it off. I wanted to set it up on a really sure footing and to bring someone else in on that, it would have been overwhelming.”
Claims from Michael Bay that a colossal blockbuster film production will be “smaller” in any way, shape or form are hard to swallow – although he’s made no secret of the fact that Transformers 4 will take the series in a new direction. That’s not exactly a bombshell, with the ‘four years later’ elapsed timeline confirmed for months now, and preventing Paramount from ignoring the previous trilogy was partly what motivated him to direct T4.
But whatever you do, don’t use the term ‘reboot’ in front of the director:
“No, that’s wrong. We keep the Transformers the way they were, it’s just four years later. There’s a reason the Transformers are redesigned. We’re trying to broaden the franchise and give it more places to go.”
Redesigned Transformers will certainly raise some hackles among the most devoted fans, especially now that we know Dinobots and Unicron won’t be appearing. But it’s the implied plot twists that Bay alludes to in explaining the new characters and design aesthetic that has our interest piqued. Do the Autobots make new advances in carbon fiber technology, thus updating their body panels? Or is a redesign attributed to some larger plot twist?
Michael Bay may not be the most likely party to reveal plot twists or extensive details this far out from release, but producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura shared his own enthusiasm for what the next few years have in store for the brand. Speaking with MTV, di Bonaventura corrected previous implications that Transformers 4 would be a reboot, while emphasizing what characters and themes would – and wouldn’t – be continued in the new trilogy. Whether or not Bay stayed on to direct it:
“I can’t speak for Michael. I hope he would [direct the next two]. It would be great, but it’s certainly something in our design of this – it’s going to be an ongoing story, so the possibility, again, as long as the audience shows up for us, there’s a lot of story still to be told.
“There’s a lot of new elements. I wouldn’t say we’ve completely changed this world, and yet it’s completely different. There are new characters, new situations. I don’t think we revisit a single location. Michael really has a great way of approaching this thing… It’s a different movie, but a lot of the things that you love about the other ones are joining the ride.”
Those comments will be bad news for anyone hoping to see a rematch of the climactic Great Pyramid brawl from Transformers 2. However, it’s also good news for those who’ve had their fill of Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), as di Bonaventura confirmed that cameos from existing characters is not their intention whatsoever.
What do you think of this disconnected continuation? Do you have high hopes for the ‘natural’ explanation for character redesigns, or think it’s all in the name of selling more merchanside? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Transformers 4 opens in theaters on June 27th, 2014.
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Follow Andrew on Twitter @andrew_dyce.
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There’s actually a lot of movies that are made for us, and the Transformers series is one of them. Because most of us “geeks” as you so kindly put it, grew up watching the series. And we’d like Bay to live very up to our movie going expectations.
And guess what. We do matter.
Here’s a test of my Gravatar. [Fingers crossed]
Test #2.
I am not a fan of Transformers series, but just the fact that it’s gonna star Mark Wahlberg makes me the first person to stand in line at the Box Office.
There’s a reason the Transformers are redesigned = YES,its MONEY !!!!
The Movie should take place in a planet full of transformers there should be also more transformations, its cool how them change up.
Being VERY old and a Transformers fan from the begining (1984) I gave the 1st Michael Bay Transformers a shot, my boys on the big screen with modern CG technology.
What a disappointment!!
What did we end up with… super close-up shakey cam so you can’t see whats happening, Michael zoom or dolley out for crying out loud so we can see. American Pie embarasseing parents and toilet jokes, please I grew out of that before Prime died the first time. Considering the source material has an overabundance of iconic designs the new ‘bots can anyone actual TELL during an action scene which bot is which with the exception of Prime and Bumblebee. The camera work doesn’t help.
The small snippets I’ve caught of the other two and opinions I’ve read things don’t seem to have improved.
Now i understand WHY they made the choices they did, the older nostaglic peeps like myself will go and most likely drag the kids along but that’s only half the market, they needed to appeal to the teenagers and the films that were popular at the time were all sexual toilet humour, explosions or a bit of skin so that’s what we got. The fact that Bay has lost his mojo (his last DECENT film was the Rock – don’t rate Armageddon or BB2)and can’t direct anymore didn’t help.
Bay and the studio have milked this cow pretty successfully, how about giving the original fans a film they can be proud of…. decent designs, get rid of the stupid humour and have a bit of intelligence.
You don’t need to dumb down Transformers, the universe, characters and story CAN sustain a film on it’s own right.
The last thing we need is as another Transformers 3/Battleship monstrosity.
@Jonathan.
Remember when Prime died, and this was before the advent of social media, texting and cell phones. There was such a write in campaign about the death of Optimus Prime, Hasbro thought there was going to be a revolt, not to mention some people actually threaten them. Needless to say, The First time they bought Prime Back, people when ballistic making him out to be a Zombie Prime in Episode Dark Awakening. Then when they found out that Optimus Prime was perhaps the first Hero not to be from DC or Marvel, they knew they did not just kill a character, they killed an Icon.
So, they set the record straight with The Return of Optimus Prime. Which settled the masses. But as I stated, the write in campaign was something that was not done on that scale for a cartoon character, show yes, animated Robot, no.
Even though I love the First Transformers. My beef started when Bay actually thought that the voice of Prime Did not Matter. He thought Peter Cullen’s voice was to old to sound like Prime.
That was his FIRST MISTAKE.
The next following ten thousand or more were pale in comparison. Transformers did not need a Hot Female Lead, Nor the Military Unit, the secret agency Sector Seven.
What Transformers was, is and always will be…Two Warring Factions, Good vs Evil with the Earth in the balance.
As much as I liked Prime in the Movies, he still does not compare to Optimus Prime most signature Moment, Transformers the Movie, when he emerged from the Autobot Shuttle, said his line, “Megatron Must be stopped. No Matter the Cost.” the slow transform, and he ended the battle.
‘bot with my own spark
Don’t forget Stan Bush’s Touch kickin’ in as well. Awesome soundtrack.
Till All Are One…..
“You got the power!”
Alas, Bay has all the power here. The thing is, this series could still be salvaged, but it won’t be. Why? Because Bay refuses to give it up. “it was bittersweet to think of passing it off. I wanted to set it up on a really sure footing and to bring someone else in on that, it would have been overwhelming.” Did he really think nobody else could handle Transformers? He thinks he created it, when he wasn’t even that interested in doing the first movie to begin with. He’s just made so much money off of it, he can’t let it go.
Throw out the toilet humor, the sex, the cheap jokes. We need robots that become cars and fight each other. One group wants to take over and destroy. The other believes in protecting all sentient beings. It’s really not that hard.
I do agree with some of the points. Though I do like Bay’s movies, and the old series is before my time, I still see some flaws. I have the 20th Anniversary of Transformers the movie, and I enjoyed that as well. I think it should be more like the War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron games. A realistic feel added with more nostalgic elements. They even added the song “You got the Power” in the credits of FoC. Bay could also do with less inappropriate scenes and comments though, I enjoyed the action and story more than those scenes. My least favorite was Revenge of the Fallen because the inappropriate references (I don’t really like Leo). I have noticed some scenes that were similar to the old series, like when Megatron blasts the Lincoln Memorial to use the chair. In “Atlantis Arise,” Megatron ends up throwing Lincoln off. Overall, I would actually like to see this new trilogy.
Never been a fan of these movies…but i think i will give this one a look.Mark Wahlberg is a fantastic actor.
A new cast of robots has completely turned me off of this franchise.
“If Bay’s most recent comments are to be believed.” LOL Well, that means I don’t need to read the rest of the article. When Transformers is finally headed up by someone other than a cocky special effects egomaniac, I’ll read the rest of it.
I really liked the first Transformers film Bay made but i think he lost his mojo with the sequels. He gave us The Fallen & a whole bunch of nameless Decepticons in both sequels but thinks Unicron & the Dinobots isn’t what fans might prefer to see over alot he’s given? Autobots were no match for Devastator but humans had no problem shooting at him & taking him down the pyrimid. Arcee wasn’t given much screen time in the 2nd film so why put in a character if they’re not gonna be in the film all that long.
It’s too bad really Bay is still directing & acting like Transformers is his sole franchise he created to play with.
Michael Bay needs to somehow gain some credibility before he crashes his career into a wall of mediocrity and banality… Hopefully he will proove me wrong with Transformers 4 but the odds are stacked against him I think.
Pearl Harbor, the movie, already did that.
Get rid of the stupid humor and these movies could be ok. That was the downfall of the previous films for me. Not that they had stories with much substance in the first place.
The First Transformers was great. This Director will continue to make so much damn money, and make more movies because all the people who Bee-otch about his movies still go and see them
I believe this is bullsh*t to make us see it now, watch they gotta be the same s*** as the others plus more races!
I will never understand the idea of not using the pre-existing story lines. why come up with a bunch of new stuff that movie goers and fan boys “MIGHT” like when a simple live action adaptation of the unicron/galvatron/rodimus story would be perfect. Im a huge g1 fan, and i know some fans dont like the post animated movie character roster, but i dont mind it. all 3 bay movies so far have barley used all the characters that they could. i assure you some day, somebody will do a movie using the 1986 animated movie story line. its just a shame that bay cant see the potential it has
Neither do I. The dumbest most ARROGANT thing that Bay could have done. The Transformers was huge when Michael Bay was still directing action scenes for Miami Vice and no one other than Don Johnson and Phillip Michael Thomas knew who he was.
Will there be a street fight in this one as well Mr. Bay? We’ve seen the same film redone three times, why not a fourth…
SPOILER******* transformers 4 is going to be about galvatron. Sense all of the deceptions are dead including megatron somebody (can’t remember the name) brings megatron and all of the decepticons up Into putter space or somewhere and gives them new bodies, armor, weapons. Just completely gives them enough to kick butt. And their is no megatron it is now GALVATRON and his pueny decepticons. At least that is is my suspicions about transformers 4
the one who brings him up is astrotrain
Okay so Im really hoping for more Autobots with names and arnt just made up. They sah that they didn’t sell a lot of toys, well irs simply add more of the transformers that were in the show. One of the biggest I think it hotrod and tje dinobots. But there are so many more that need to be in these movies, amd enough of the military being able to kill an advance race from another planet. The movie is called transformers for a reason. Also turn megatron into galvatron and bam a whole new set of robots aswell. My thought is have optimus for most of the movie, then have a huge battle where he losses and hotrod takes over. Maybe have optimus come back in a later movie. He has done it many times in the original snow so its not out of the question. But thats just my thoight on things.
Okay so I’m really hoping for more Autobots with names and arn’t just made up. They say that they didn’t sell a lot of toys, well its simple add more of the transformers that were in the show. One of the biggest I think it hotrod and the dinobots. But there are so many more that need to be in these movies, and enough of the military being able to kill an advance race from another planet. The movie is called transformers for a reason. Also turn Megatron into galvatron and bam a whole new set of robots aswell. My thought is have optimus for most of the movie, then have a huge battle where he losses and Hotrod takes over. Maybe have optimus come back in a later movie. He has done it many times in the original snow so its not out of the question. But that’s just my thought on things.
For the love of god please bring in hotrod and other transformers WITH names. No more random transformers that have not business being in the movie. No more humans being able to kill an advanced race from another planet.
For the love of god please bring in hotrod and other transformers WITH names. No more random transformers that have not business being in the movie. No more humans being able to kill an advanced race
from another planet.
Yep in the first movie I only recognized 2 transformers with names that I remember and that Prime and Bumblebee. And why isn’t Bumblebee a VW Beetle? He was in the cartoon and the reason I’ve wanted to by one since. Yeah the first movie sucked, and from what I’m hearing all the rest of them did too. No story whatsoever to be found.
How about some actual character development of the Transformers? We had three movies with Bumblebee and Optimus and we got nothing out of them. Not that Bay has shown any demonstravle capacity for character development in the majority of hos dilms to date. Aparently if it isn’t hot, shiny or spouts profanity while wielding big guns Bay isn’t interested. Please make some BELIEVABLE characters that make folks want to be like them. Then Hasbrow will sell lots of toys, more people will go to the movies and Bay gets more money. Problem solved.
How about some actual character development of the Transformers? We had three movies with Bumblebee and Optimus and we got nothing out of them. Not that Bay has shown any demonstravle capacity for character development in the majority of hos dilms to date. Aparently if it isn’t hot, shiny or spouts profanity while wielding big guns Bay isn’t interested.
How about some actual character Apparently if it isn’t hot, shiny or spouts profanity while wielding big guns Bay isn’t interested. Please make some BELIEVABLE characters that make folks want to be like them. Then Hasbro will sell lots of toys, more people will go to the movies and Bay gets more money. Problem solved.
Yeah… Michael Bay has destroyed the Transformers. It doesn’t resemble the cartoon that I grew up watching in the 80′s. None of the Deceptions are recognizable not even the Autobots are recognizable(except Optimus).Megatron looks like a metal cookie monster. All the things that made them cool are gone. After the first one the should have canned Michael Bay and gotten someone like Guillermo Del Toro(who reads comics and knows how to make them come to life on the big screen.)
I stopped after the first one that, and I slept most of the way through it at the drive-in. Waste of money and time.. So 2,3,4.. I don’t care to see any of them if Michael Bay is directing. Heat was a great movie but the Transformers aren’t Heat.
who are you trying to lie to!? lol you watched the entire movie!
Just another Bay movie I’m not gonna waste a dime on.. Somebody let me know when a REAL Transformers movie gets made. P.S. Yes I have the 80′s animated movie.. The only REAL Transformers movie out there.