Today brings with it some Michael Bay news that has nothing to do with Ninja Turtles or his currently-in-development passion project Pain and Gain starring Dwayne Johnson. Instead, it has much to do with the state of things regarding Transformers 4 and its quasi-reboot nature. Ever since the director revealed that tidbit about the upcoming fourth installment of Paramount’s series, the press has been wondering what it all means and thankfully Bay saw fit to clarify things to the LA Times.
“It’s not a reboot, that’s maybe the wrong word. I don’t want to say reboot because then people will think we’re doing a Spider-Man and starting from the beginning. We’re not. We’re taking the story that you’ve seen — the story we’ve told in three movies already — and we’re taking it in a new direction. But we’re leaving those three as the history. It all still counts. I met with the writer before I went off to do ‘Pain and Gain’ and we talked about a bunch of ideas. We let that simmer for a bit. He’s been thinking about stuff and now we’re getting back together next week to see what we’ve got and to see if it gels.”
Of course, we already pretty much jumped to the conclusion that this was not a reboot, but people were still up in arms about some comments he made about ‘new designs’ which likely will come in the form of new characters. What we can take away thought from Bay’s recent comments though is that he has not exactly settled on a plot yet other than the fact that things will be a bit different thanks to Shia LaBeouf’s departure.
Bay also said some things alluding to a more Asgardian vibe ala Thor by saying he would be cool with spending more time in space, but he backed off almost immediately by saying it is important to remain distant from the sci-fi genre with Transformers. Ultimately, I would venture a guess that he is not really attached to the idea of spending more time in space and more so this was a baited response from the press.
Stay tuned for more on Transformers as Michael Bay turns his attention back to the Hasbro-spawned property which is expected to have its fourth installment landing in theaters two years from now on June 27, 2014.