Just one day after Michael Bay himself offered an update on the soon-to-shoot Transformers 4, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura spoke with MTV about the future of the series and dropped hints that Bay's departure from the franchise after the fourth film is far from a done deal.

"I can't speak for Michael," di Bonaventura says, "I would hope he would [stick around]. It would be great. There's certainly something, in our design of this, that's going to be an ongoing story... As long as the audience shows up for us, there's a lot of stories still to be told."

He also spoke about the plans to relaunch the franchise with brand-new characters while maintaining the continuity of the first three films.

"There's a lot of new elements," he says. "I wouldn't say that we completely changed this world and yet it's completely different. There are new characters. There are new situations. I don't think we revisit a single location."

Transformers 4 is set to star Mark Wahlberg and Jack Reynor and will hit theaters on June 27, 2014.

(Photo Credit: Brian To / WENN.com)