It left off in Chicago, and that is right where it will pick up. “Transformers 4,” slated for a June 2014 release, will carry on from the history already in place, but have a new, broader setting to survive in, according to director Michael Bay.

Peter Cullen will return as the voice of Optimus Prime, a voice that gave the director “chills” when he first heard it.

The movie will not be a reboot or act as though the other three didn’t take place. Instead, it will build on its history and move in a new direction.

“We set it on a new footing,” Bay told the Huffington Post in an interview posted online. “We change[d] a lot of things.”

After “Dark of the Moon,” Bay said he was done and ready to move past the “Transformers” chapter he spent years developing. But when he learned about people spending two and a half hours in line at Universal Studios to experience the 3-D “Transformers” ride, his began to feel his original decision wavering. “You birth a baby and you want to carry it on,” Bay told the Huffington Post. “It’s very hard to give it up.”

After doing some soul searching, the fear of leaving “Transformers” in bad hands convinced Bay to get back on board when the studio wanted to restart the franchise. Recommitted to the “Transformers” team, Bay says this will “probably” be his last but, with rumors of film five already circling, we’ll see.

While fans are wondering how this film will be different, aspiring filmmakers are wondering if they’ll make the cut and be able to contribute to the process. The winner of the Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” annual contest will not only receive a cash prize and get to watch their Frito Lay commercial appear during the big game in February, but he or she will be awarded an opportunity to work with Bay on “Transformers 4.”

“When I was young, aspiring to do what I did, I would have killed for something like this,” Bay told the Huffington Post. “There’s nothing better than real-life experience.”

Director Bay promises the winner won’t be doing his laundry, either, but he or she will be working on the set in some capacity.

Michael Bay is also well known for the films “Pearl Harbor” and “Armageddon,” and the contest winner will get a chance to work with one of the biggest names in the film-making business.

Part of what held Bay back in the beginning was his desire to move on and try something different. Dipping his hands into something quirky, original and somewhat “twisted,” Bay just finished shooting the low-budget ($25 million) film “Pain & Gain,” set to release in April 2013. Featuring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a pair of bodybuilders in Florida who get caught up in a kidnapping scheme that goes terribly wrong, Bay says the film is one of those types of movies he loves.

“The thing is, studios aren’t doing those type of movies anymore,” Bay told the Huffington Post. “I mean, I had to pull to get this movie made.”

Complete with a great cast and funny dialogue, Bay said shooting “Pain & Gain” brought back memories from doing “Bad Boys” with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence back in the day.

Bay said Paramount wanted him to do something bigger while he wanted to find a niche in something smaller. They struck a compromise.

“I basically said, ‘All right, I’ll do ‘Transformers 4,’ we’ll do this movie — we’ll do both,'” he was quoted as saying.

Everyone’s happy.