To the delight of… well, no one really, it has been reported that Josh Duhamel may be returning for the fourth installment in the bloated “Transformers” franchise. Josh who? Exactly. The untitled “Transformers 4,” scheduled for June 2014 release, looks to retain some of its Golden Raspberry-bait magic in the form of Duhamel, who will be reprising his role as action man-in-chief William Lennox.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about the next film, with the kind of generic insights we expect from Capt. Lennox (maybe he was still in character), Duhamel remarked: “[The director, Michael Bay] said he wants to put me in some place. I don’t know if he was just saying that because he had me on the phone and he felt obligated or what, but you know what? I got to do three of those. It changed my career, it changed my life getting to be a part of something that big, so I’m grateful for even doing the first three of them.”
This marks the one constant in what is otherwise reported to be a casting re-shuffle for “Transformers” (no word from Optimus Prime but he may find time in his schedule for a cameo). Tween crowd-pleaser Shia-“Even Stevens”-LaBeouf seems to have at last outgrown the series, and will be replaced by indie newcomer Jack Reynor and action stalwart Mark Wahlberg. With the third “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” taking in an eye-watering $1.1bn, it was sadly a no-brainer that we would have to strap ourselves in for another round of the man versus machine monstrosity.