Merrick here...
A few days ago, Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura revealed that Michael Bay would be directing another TRANSFORMERS film for 2014 (which had previously been presumed, but not taken-for-granted), and that said project would be something of a reboot..."an evolution"...maintaining some level of continuity with the Bayverse TRANSFORMERS pictures that've come before, while also shaking up the franchise a bit. This in sharp contrast to THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, which appears to be starting the whole shebang all over again.
In that interview (linked above), di Bonaventura was non-committal regarding whether any of the original cast from the first three films would return for a fourth go-round. It may well be too early in the picture's development to know for sure, but Josh Duhamel, who played Captain (later Major) Lennox in the first three movies seems to pretty much confirm he's not coming back. But he may not be the only one who won't be returning.
Per THIS discussion with E!
"I don't think anybody's doing it," Josh Duhamel told us last night at the launch party for Sony PlayStation's new PS Vita portable entertainment system. "I know Shia [LaBoeuf]'s not doing it. I don't think Tyrese or Rosie [Huntington-Whiteley] or anybody else is doing it."
A largely refreshed cast had been inferred and/or conjectured since word came last year that any future TRANSFORMERS films might skew in new directions...but this appears to be our clearest indicator yet that the casting situation may, indeed, be a clean sweep.
THIS SAID: as stated above, it may be too early to know for sure. There are any number of ways previous cast members might appear in this new film, and with a script not yet put in place, who knows what'll happen?
The most recent installment in the saga, DARK OF THE MOON, took many knocks, but it was the first TRANSFORMERS movie that didn't rub me in some wrong direction. And that final forty five minutes or so is glorious madness of the Bayiest order. Hope there were lessons taken to heart which propagate into this new iteration of the franchise.
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