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If you caught last night's episode of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno you saw Mark Wahlberg promoting his new film Broken City. As we all know Wahlberg has been confirmed to star in the next installment of the Transformers live action movie franchise, which he mentioned during the course of his conversation with Leno. The interesting thing about his comment is that it directly conflicts with director Michael Bay's statement regarding the direction of Transformers 4. Bay has said on multiple occasions that TF4 will not be a franchise reboot, but a continuation of the previous trilogy taking place four years after the events of DOTM. During last night's interview Wahlberg very plainly stated it would be a reboot.

Once this information circulates for a bit there's a good chance Bay will respond with an explanation. Stay tuned.

Mark Wahlberg from last night's Tonight Show:

We’re doing a complete reboot of the Transformers. I did a movie with Michael Bay called Pain and Gain, which comes out in April. And we had an amazing time together and really hit it off

Michael Bay from Jack Reynor's Casting Announcement (01/08/13):

Transformers 4, is not a reboot. That word has been floating around on the net.
This movie takes place exactly 4 years after the war in Chicago. The story makes a very natural transition, and reason as to why we have a whole new cast. This Transformers will feel very different then the last three. We are embarking on a new trilogy.

If you would like to watch the interview for yourself it can be found by clicking here.

I watched this last night, and really didn't give it a second thought at the time. Just assumed Wahlberg might not be fully aware what was happening in the TF movie franchise and making assumptions. Then again he's a Hollywood veteran, maybe he knows exactly what he's talking about. Time will tell, I'm hoping he's right.

2 theories:

1) Bay is lying just to throw people off.

2) Wahlberg is simply misusing the term "reboot". He doesn't mean that the story is being rebooted from the beginning, but rather it's the look, feel, style and tone of the movie that's being "rebooted" - with new actors, new Transformers, etc.

Wasn't it reported a while back that the returning Cybertronian characters were getting all new CGI models? I seem to recall that being mentioned in some official report made months ago, brought along by the fact that DOTM figures hadn't sold anywhere near as well as Hasbro had hoped (movie figure fatigue).

If that news was true (and my mind isn't playing tricks on me), it really makes sense to have a reboot. How can you completely change the Cybertronian designs, which are recognizable by just about everyone & were used for 3 straight movies, and not restart things?

Could be wrong, of course, but I will admit I am hoping for a reboot.

christ, a new trilogy? that means 3 more toy lines. they better be damned good toys. also who are the bad guys? all of the main decepticons got killed off. unless they bring in time travel i dont see who the main villain would be.

It's not a "reboot" in the same sense as Spider-Man, but a reboot meaning a clean slate of actors, new direction with the storyline, etc. Perhaps the characters and aesthetics of the film will look different.

Doubledealer93 wrote:christ, a new trilogy? that means 3 more toy lines. they better be damned good toys. also who are the bad guys? all of the main decepticons got killed off. unless they bring in time travel i dont see who the main villain would be.

A reboot would solve the villain problem xD

So would Unicron, I suppose. Bay did tease fans between movie 1 and 2 (or was it 2 and 3?) with the concept of bringing Unicron in... I hope this isn't his answer however. It's one thing to use Unicron in a cartoon, but in a live action movie? Ugh!

GuyIncognito wrote:2 theories:

1) Bay is lying just to throw people off.

2) Wahlberg is simply misusing the term "reboot". He doesn't mean that the story is being rebooted from the beginning, but rather it's the look, feel, style and tone of the movie that's being "rebooted" - with new actors, new Transformers, etc.

There's a good chance it's both, however more likely Bay, to one extent or another. This is Bay we're talking, wouldn't be the first time he's pulled this kinda ****.

They can bring the Decepticons that were never there and has a lot. And just to make a way to Galvatron to come
Maybe Bay is lying , maybe Wahlberg doesn't know what is happening, maybe Bay is telling the truth , maybe Wahlberg is playing with us.
Who knows.

i look forward to the toys and nothing else when it comes to these movies.

Holy freaking God...

Honestly dislike all this "one guy says this while the other guy says nuh-uh" stuff. Really irritating, if you ask me.

well the term reboot has come to mean different things these days, it can either mean a total do over where the established story & events are erased (the lazy & stupid way) or a new revamped installment thats going to try and renew interest in the franchise but acknowledges the previous stories & events (the right way). So a couple things can be going on here, bay is lying or wahlberg was told to feed false information to keep people guessing. Either way the term reboot is thrown around way to much these days, if your going to use it then you better be ready to explain why its a reboot & what makes it one.

Either Mark Wahlberg mispoke, or there is some disinformation going on.

If the next movie is a reboot, I think it will be more like a Casino Royale reboot. Or a G.I. Joe: Retaliation type reboot, that's not a reboot but it looks totally different than the previous film.

GuyIncognito wrote:2 theories:

1) Bay is lying just to throw people off.

2) Wahlberg is simply misusing the term "reboot". He doesn't mean that the story is being rebooted from the beginning, but rather it's the look, feel, style and tone of the movie that's being "rebooted" - with new actors, new Transformers, etc.

This.

From what I've heard I think it's going to be like the 4th Pirates of the Carribean movie. Some new characters and a new story line, but the same continuity.

How anyone can believe a single word that comes out of Michael Bay's mouth still baffles me…

Seibertron wrote:It's not a "reboot" in the same sense as Spider-Man, but a reboot meaning a clean slate of actors, new direction with the storyline, etc. Perhaps the characters and aesthetics of the film will look different.

I hear yeah and don't doubt the possibility of new characters or storyline. But with Michael Bay at the wheel - I deeply feel that the general aesthetics of the robots, annoying tight fast angle shots, and general feeling of the movie compared with the other 3 will be nearly the same. Michael Bay may feel they are different, but they won't be. I even believe the 4th grade pee humor will remain. It is Michael Bay's signature style.

I'd like to reboot Michael Bay's ass with my foot.

GuyIncognito wrote:2 theories:

1) Bay is lying just to throw people off.

2) Wahlberg is simply misusing the term "reboot". He doesn't mean that the story is being rebooted from the beginning, but rather it's the look, feel, style and tone of the movie that's being "rebooted" - with new actors, new Transformers, etc.

3) who cares, bay will mess it up like he did with the last two movies

If there is a sure fire way to get on the bad side of your boss, it's definitely to countermand what the boss says. Mark Wahlberg would have done himself and everyone else better service by not saying anything at all.

OMG please no Unicron . I still have nightmares about the epic fail of Galactus in Rise of the Silver Surfer. I do not think Unicron would be represented by a big stupid cosmic cloud, but I could see just a silhouette, booming voice, or maybe one arm shown with bright flashy lights and lots of Bayesque explosions! We deserve better than that crap and a reboot is in order...if Bay is not lying then there are still a heck of a lot of decepticons running around on Earth after space bridge was destroyed to rise to power.

Erailea wrote:

Doubledealer93 wrote:christ, a new trilogy? that means 3 more toy lines. they better be damned good toys. also who are the bad guys? all of the main decepticons got killed off. unless they bring in time travel i dont see who the main villain would be.

A reboot would solve the villain problem xD

So would Unicron, I suppose. Bay did tease fans between movie 1 and 2 (or was it 2 and 3?) with the concept of bringing Unicron in... I hope this isn't his answer however. It's one thing to use Unicron in a cartoon, but in a live action movie? Ugh!

OMG please no Unicron . I still have nightmares about the epic fail of Galactus in Rise of the Silver Surfer. I do not think Unicron would be represented by a big stupid cosmic cloud, but I could see just a silhouette, booming voice, or maybe one arm shown with bright flashy lights and lots of Bayesque explosions! We deserve better than that crap and a reboot is in order...if Bay is not lying then there are still a heck of a lot of decepticons running around on Earth after space bridge was destroyed to rise to power.

M.Bay painted that series into a huge corner. It's going to take alot of chop shop writing to even get a story of any kind out of it. Furthermore, I'm not wasting my money to go see it or any of the 2 following films. What ever that is bears no semblance to G1 Transformers, Beast Wars, RID, Etc except in borrowing names of classic bots we love. Those movies produce figures that directly compete with other figure lines in the TF universe and rot on shelves because they cant compare to Generations.

Clearly, the Bay Transformers movies are such a mangled mess of NASTY that neither of them can tell what they're looking at, despite one creating it and one starring in it.

Why do people even believe anything Bay says about his films? Nearly every rumor that appears he denies then turns out true.

Bigger question is why do people even want to see another Bayformers movie? Weren't the first three films torture enough??