Transformers: Age of Extinction marks a new direction for the franchise, with a whole new cast of characters that we'll see in action with the first footage that will debut during Super Bowl XLVIII on Sunday, February 2. Despite what many people may think, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura revealed that the sequel is not a reboot.

Here's what the producer had to say about the sequel, which he compared to the Star Wars franchise, in terms of the way they are telling this story, revealing that the action-adventure acknowledges the events that took place in the first three movies.

"It's definitely not a reboot. It's an interesting question about what you should call it. On a certain level it's a continuation of the previous stories, in the fact that it acknowledges what has transpired before it. It acknowledges in the last movie, the destruction of Chicago, it's actually something that carries through the sort of emotional repercussions of that, not unlike 9/11 has emotional repercussions in the real world. In a fantasy world there are repercussions to what occurred.

That plays into the movie, moving forwards with a totally different human cast, who doesn't know anything about the other humans, it's not a reboot, but a continuation, yet you're continuing with a new cast and group of characters. It was a big decision to do that.

We miss our friends that we did the first three with, and they were great, and they probably could've done more. But the advantage of doing it this way is that it feels almost like a first movie. It's a very different dynamic than I've seen in a movie, I'm very curious. I guess Star Wars did that a little bit, but not so close together, the way we're doing it."

The producer's comments echo a statement made by director Michael Bay in November, where he said it was not a reboot, and that the story takes place three years after 2011's Transformers: Dark of the Moon. That November report also included new details about the story, which follows inventor Cade Yeager, who discovers a buried transformer that ultimately leads to the Autobots and Decepticons returning to an Earth that is still "scarred" after the destruction that happened in the first trilogy.

The supporting cast includes Nicola Peltz as Cade's daughter Tessa, Jack Reynor as Tessa's secret, race car driver boyfriend Shane Dyson, Stanley Tucci as a geologist named Stanley and Sophia Myles as Stanley's assistant. Kelsey Grammer plays the human villain Harold Attinger, with Bingbing Li playing a character described as the CEO of the "Chinese Transformers." T.J. Miller and Han Geng also star in unspecified roles.