"Transformers: Age of Extinction," the fourth installment of the Transformers franchise, was meant to be the first of a new trilogy, with an overhauled cast of Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor replacing Shia Labeouf and Megan Fox/Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. The movie was critically panned, but it earned over $1 billion internationally.

We are sure that the fifth Transformer movie is in the works. It was initially planned for release on June 24, 2016, but it looks like a 2017 release date will be more likely at the rate the movie production is going. A lot of other details are still not confirmed at this point.

Will Michael Bay direct the movie? In a recent interview with USA Today, Bay said he has different plans that don't include Transformers movies. Will he change his mind and direct the fifth movie anyway? Anything is possible at this point, until such time we receive a confirmation as to who will finally direct the movie. Bay will still be executive producer of the movie, even if he doesn't end up directing it.

Will Mark Wahlberg's character Cade Yeager return? It was Bay who personally handpicked Wahlberg to join the cast after their collaboration in "Pain & Gain." If Bay doesn't come back to direct, there is a possibility that Wahlberg might not return as well. However, there are reports that say Wahlberg and Peltz will return as Cade and Tessa Yaeger, but to date there has been no official casting news yet.

Ehren Kruger has been tapped to write the screenplay for the movie. He and Bay have collaborated quite closely when writing/birthing a story, so if Bay is not going to be the director, it would do well to assign one very quickly so at least whatever Kruger has done will not be laid to waste if the director has another vision altogether.

This one is more rumor than fact. But there are those that believe that Megan Fox returning to the series as Mikaela Banes would be what a lot of fans would want to happen. Fox had a very public feud with Bay which ended up with her not being part of the 3^rd movie, "Transformers: The Dark Side of the Moon." However, Fox and Bay seemed to have made amends because Fox starred as April O'Neil in Michael Bay's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

Let us explore another rumor which has Shia Labeouf coming back for the 5^th film. No confirmation from Labeouf's camp or Paramount Pictures has been received.

In terms of the real stars of the movie, the robots, there are reports that the fifth film will no longer focus on Optimus Prime—he left Earth at the ending of  "Transformers: Age of Extinction" to pursue the "Creators." There are rumors that new robots will be introduced.