Josh Duhamel: No Original Cast Members Returning For 'Transformers 4'?

To be fair, producer Lorenzo DiBonaventura did promise a new direction for "Transformers." One franchise star's claims make that sound like an understatement.

Though franchise director Michael Bay has been lured back into the fold after claiming 2011's "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" would be his last dance with the robots in disguise, series veteran Josh Duhamel claims Bay, Bonaventura and co-executive producer Steven Spielberg may be the only main players returning.

"I don't think anybody's doing it," Duhamel told E! Online Wednesday night during a launch event celebrating Sony's PS Vita handheld video game console. "I know Shia [LaBeouf]'s not doing it. I don't think Tyrese [Gibson] or Rosie [Huntington-Whitely] or anybody else is doing it.

"Whenever these movies make that much money, they're going to make as many as they can," he added. "[But] I haven't heard anything about it. They haven't called me."

In all fairness, it's possible Duhamel is jumping the gun. Bay himself said that with a targeted June 27, 2014 release date, he'll be putting his interim time into making the smaller-budget drama "Pain And Gain" starring Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg. DiBonaventura spoke of giving the franchise as clean a slate as possible without a total reboot - ala the upcoming sequel "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," also produced by Hasbro - but said little else plot-wise. He recently suggested to MTV News that both Optimus Prime and Bumblebee would return for a fourth go-round.

That being said, there's some credence to LaBeouf bowing out. Like Bay, he claimed he would be walking away following "Dark Of The Moon." Gibson has sounded optimistic that he'd be back. And nothing has been black-and-white said about Duhamel or Whitely - at least, not publicly.

Still, one by one, major franchise pieces have fallen off the franchise. Megan Fox was informed her eye-candy services would no longer be needed after "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." Reportedly, Spielberg ordered her fired after she made public remarks likening Bay to Adolph Hitler. Even Bay claimed after "Dark Of The Moon" that he was done, but billions in box-office gross clearly talks.