Transformers 4 will be a reboot

The ‘Transformers’ franchise is getting ‘rebooted’, just five years after the beginning of the series.

The first robots-in-disguise flick was released back in 2007 and spawned two sequels. Between them they have made £1.6 billion.

Now producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura let slip to MTV (at a US toy fair) that ‘Transformers 4' will re-set the series and introduce a raft of new faces.

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He said: "There will be a lot of new cast. Whether there's anybody from the first cast, we don't even know yet. The truth is it's going to be a whole new story."

Series star Shia LaBeouf has already said he doesn’t want to make any more ‘Transformers’ films.

Confusingly however, di Bonaventura added that some characters might be back, including ‘bots Optimus and Bumblebee, and we should think of ‘Transformers 4’ as an ‘evolution’. “There's still continuity that's going on”, he said.

An example of this is director Michael Bay, who - contrary to earlier reports - has also signed up to make the film. It will be released in 2014.

Deadline report that Bay "went crazy" on di Bonaventura for spilling the beans.

Proper reboot or not, the news shows Hollywood studios are letting less time than ever pass before re-starting successful series’.

This summer sees the release of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’, a totally updated version of the web-slinging action franchise with an all new cast. The last Tobey Maguire film was only finished in 2007.

[Related feature: The Amazing Spider-Man trailer explained]

Next year a new Superman adventure (‘Man of Steel’) will hit cinemas a mere seven years after the release of ‘Superman Returns’.

Has Hollywood run out of ideas, or are you looking forward to ‘Transformers 4’? Let us know below...