'Transformers 4' picks up the story four years later

We saw Christopher Nolan do this with The Dark Knight Rises, putting a bit of distance between it and The Dark Knight. The eight-year gap showed just how drastically things can change after one catalyzing event, and now Michael Bay is doing much the same thing with Transformers 4.

With Mark Wahlberg now confirmed for the lead, Bay took to TMZ to talk a little bit about it, and really the only thing worth mentioning is this snippet here....

Bay: "The movie is going to continue 4 years on from the attack on Chicago which was in the last movie. So it’s going still to have the same lineage but going in a full, new, different direction and it actually feels really natural how it is going in that direction."

A lot of people didn't reall dig the gap when Nolan did it, but this is Transformers: Dark of the Moon that Bay is following. Hardly the strongest thematic piece ever, right? I'm not convinced that Bay and screenwriter Ehren Kruger are doing this for any other reason than to wipe the slate clean. With a new lead character, a new group of Autobots and Deceptions, and possibly a trip into our space, this is the easiest way to help people move on.

Transformers 4 is slated to roll out on June 29th 2014.