Well that didn’t take long, did it? Just 24 hours after Michael Bay teased the announcement on his blog, Mark Wahlberg has officially been unveiled as the new star of Transformers 4 .
Having initially dismissed internet stories surrounding the casting as mere speculation, Bay then announced that the rumours had given him an idea, and now here we are, with Wahlberg officially attached.
“Mark is awesome,” said Bay in an official statement. “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 calibre is the perfect guy to re-invigorate the franchise and carry on the Transformers legacy.”
All of which leads us to wonder whether Bay had Wahlberg in mind all along. Still, if you take his account at face value, it’s a rather remarkable turn of events, and a demonstration of how plugged-in Bay is to internet chit-chat.
Perhaps now all those Shia-haters will have a leading man to rally behind. Transformers 4 will open on 27 June 2014, and it has a shiny new logo to boot. Lovely.
