Pain and Gain director Michael Bay insists Transformers 4 won't be a reboot

Transformers franchise director Michael Bay has insisted that the next instalment in the hugely successful robot rumble series is not a reboot.

Reports suggest that the fourth outing will have a budget that is £19 million ($30 million) less than the previous outing Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and talking to the Los Angeles Times Bay said "It's not a reboot, that's maybe the wrong word.

I don't want to say 'reboot' because then people will think we're doing a Spider-Man and starting from the beginning. We're not.

We're taking the story that you've seen - the story we've told in three movies already - and we're taking it in a new direction. But we're leaving those three as the history. It all still counts... We're moving on to something different."

While there is no word on what the plot will be, Bay did hint that the film may partially be set in space adding "That feels like the way to go, doesn't it? I want to go a little off the planet but I don't want to go too sci-fi. I still want to keep it grounded."

Bay currently has the Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson starring Pain and Gain in post production and recently had his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot put on hold with a release earmarked for May 2014.