Michael Bay Transforms Expectations For 'Transformers 4'

It's no surprise that Michael Bay is currently working on "Transformers 4" despite his assurances that "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" would be his last installment of the franchise. After all, $1.1 billion dollars worldwide has a way of making you reconsider your career path.

But what is a surprise is what he's saying about "Transformers 4:" There will be no Shia LaBeouf and no Sam Witwicky.

"It's a new cast," Bay told The Los Angeles Times. “We’ve moving on to something different."

And just how different may surprise even the most hardcore "Transformers" fan.

Before we get into details, though, we want to make one thing clear: "Transformers 4" is not going to be an "Amazing Spider-Man" style reboot. How do we know? Because Bay talked at length on that very subject.

"It's not a reboot, that's maybe the wrong word," Bay said. "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."

So if there's no Sam Witwicky, just what is this new direction? Could it be straight up into outer space where the Decepticons and Autobots originally came from?

"I think so, yeah, a little," Bay said. "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.

"It's kind of daunting and scary," Bay added. "You want to try to keep it going, to match what’s come before. We've accomplished a lot but that doesn't mean you get anything handed to you or that you've got everything figured out."

Well, here's hoping he gets it all figured out before "Transformers 4" hits theaters in 2014. After all, fans are expecting more than meets the eye — they're expecting to be blown away. And that's something Bay is very, very good at.