Will the Transformers Franchise Go On Without Michael Bay?

We all know by now that Michael Bay will not be returning to the Transformers franchise after Dark of the Moon but who's to say he can't change he's mind. In a recent interview, MTV asked Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner whether or not he could see Bay returning to the series—and if not, will the franchise go on without Bay?

"I would say to you right now that I've so enjoyed working with Michael Bay"

"Michael has got this incredible visual sense for showing you things you've never seen before. Perhaps he'll change his mind, perhaps he won't, but I'd rather put out this movie first then cross that bridge at some point."

"I really believe it is, and the reason is because we've learned so many things as we've made [these films]."

"The fact is, there's a lot of story here… but we also understand the great spectacle of what 'Transformers' can be," he continued. "It's a great marriage, but with greater meaning. The first trailer shows that the space race is a backdrop to something that had gone on in our past that nobody was aware of. In typical 'Transformers' fashion, it's all about more than meets the eye. That's the core of what 'Transformers' is: you can never judge a book by its cover. We're going to reveal to you, in much more of a thriller style than ever before, that idea of what's going on behind this whole 'Transformers' pre-history."

"If everyone had understood why each Transformer was in the movie, people wouldn't have cared how many there were," he said. "But once they're just these robots without any real meaning of why they're there, it just became robot melee, and that's not as enjoyable as knowing something about each robot and their personality so that when they do fight, there are stakes to it. That's really what was missing. It wasn't that there were so many robots; there were so many robots that you didn't know."