Michael Bay Officially Confirms That Mark Wahlberg Will Replace Shia LaBeouf in 'Transformers 4'

How do you replace Shia LaBeouf in your Transformers sequel? If you're Michael Bay, you listen to the Internet and bring in Mark Wahlberg. After a few weeks of going through the online rumor mill, Bay took his website on Friday night to officially announce that Wahlberg was joining Transformers 4.

After an exceptionally successful collaboration on the upcoming “Pain and Gain,” Michael Bay has cast Academy Award®-nominee Mark Wahlberg in the highly anticipated “TRANSFORMERS 4.” The film will hit theaters June 27th, 2014. 

“Mark is awesome. We had a blast working on “Pain and Gain” and I’m so fired up to be back working with him. An actor of his caliber is the perfect guy to re-invigorate the franchise and carry on the Transformers’ legacy,” said Bay.

So how did we wind up with an Oscar nominee replacing LaBeouf in a franchise about alien robot cars who fight each other? As Bay mentions in his press release, the director worked with Wahlberg on his upcoming film, Pain and Gain. The Internet started wondering if Bay might possibly work with the actor again in the latest Transformers movie, Bay took the idea to heart and here we are.

Head past the jump to read about what Wahlberg could mean for the Transformers franchise and check out the new logo for Transformers 4.

The Transformers movies are ridiculous movies, and it's hard to imagine them ever being serious fare. That said, Transformers: Dark of the Moon did bring a gravitas to the franchise that the first two installments — especially the awful Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen — were missing. Adding a guy like Wahlberg, who can play both serious and funny, could go a long way toward making Transformers 4 something much different from the first three movies. If you've seen The Other Guys or Ted, you know what I'm talking about.

Bay has talked about using Transformers 4 to launch the future of the franchise, with his plan being to hand of the property to another director after this movie. If Wahlberg's deal for Transformers 4 is anything like Hollywood gets just about every actor to sign for these kinds of movies now, I'd expect there to be options for sequels. We could be on the verge of a Transformers trilogy starring Wahlberg now.