Michael Bay Offers Up Transformers 4 Updates

In speaking with Hero Complex, Michael Bay offered up a few details on Transformers 4, which saw its first (official?) poster released earlier today. The first thing that the director made clear was that despite the new cast, the film will not be a reboot. Yes, it is intended to set up the series for a new director but that doesn’t mean that it will be a reboot.

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.

Here’s the thing, it’s tough to find someone who’s done these kind of movies and to have the complication of creating the new stuff that needs to be in this movie – not just characters but a new type of action, I hope – and that’s a lot for someone new to bite off. And so after this one I will leave it in the best hands possible. That’s the plan.

Bay was then asked about the plot and if the film would see a return to space. Here’s what he had to say.

“I think so, yeah, a little. That feels like the way to go, doesn’t it? I want to go a little off but I don’t want to go too sci-fi. I still want to keep it grounded. That’s what works in these movies, that’s what makes it accessible.”

Finally, he said that the budget would be receiving a cut.

“Our mandate is to cut about $30 million,” Bay says.

Most notable here is what he says about the reboot. I actually thought that it might be going down that route but I guess not. Then again, if they were rebooting it, Bay probably wouldn’t be sitting in the director’s chair, right? It makes you wonder though, which of the Autobots and Decepticons will make an appearance in the new trilogy?

Bay says that they’re leaving the previous three films as history, so does that mean we’ll be seeing all new characters. I realize that the cast will be full of fresh faces but will we see new robots as well? Let us know what you think.

Transformers 4 will arrive on June 27th, 2014.