The driving force behind the Transformers franchise has always been to sell toys, so it’s no surprise that the fourth installation of Michael Bay’s visually interesting, yet pretty terrible movies are changing things up to boost toy sales. According to Blastr, Hasbro President and CEO Brian Goldner recently indicated that the new movie will feature a whole new cast of robots to inhabit this new episode in the ongoing battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons. What that means is that we may not see Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, and the rest of the gang the next time around. Why is that? Just so Hasbro can sell more toys.

In a quote from Collider, Bay talks a little bit about what to expect from ‘Transformers 4’ and why it isn’t a reboot:

“It’s not a reboot, that’s maybe the wrong word. 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. I met with the writer before I went off to do ‘Pain and Gain’ and we talked about a bunch of ideas. We let that simmer for a bit. He’s been thinking about stuff and now we’re getting back together next week to see what we’ve got and to see if it gels.”

Narratively, I could understand changing up the cast, especially since none of the human characters are slated to return for the sequel. It’s still unsettling to hear that this movie is getting made for the sole purpose to sell more toys. There’s something very wrong about that and it does not sit right with me at all. And considering that I despised ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’, this is just another reason why I’ll be avoiding ‘Transformers 4’, which is scheduled for release on June 27th, 2014.

How do you feel about Michael Bay and Hasbro changing up the cast of robot characters just to sell more toys? For that matter, what are your thoughts of there being a 4th Transformers film in general? Share your thoughts in the comments below!