New reports state that 'Transformers' producer Michael Bay has officially stepped down from the director's chair for the upcoming 'Transformers 5' movie.

During an interview with MTV, Bay stated that creating Transformers is a grueling task of filming everyday for two years, and that the direction of the next Transformers movie will be entirely up to the next director. While Bay had at one point stated that he did not want to be a part of 'Transformers 4: Age of Extinction', he ended up working on the box office hit anyway.

Following the massive success of the Age of Extinction, raking in over $1 billion in global earnings, the expected fifth installment of the Transformers franchise is said to be already in pre-production. However, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura stated that the action-packed robotic film may not be ready until 2016.

In addition to the projected release date, Bonaventura mentioned that the production team for 'Transformers 5' is doing everything in their power to keep Bay on board.

On a side note, Michael Bay also produced the recent 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' movie which continues to be a major success at the box office. That film is also in talks for a sequel.

Bay personally chose director Jonathan Liebesman for the 'TMNT' movie, which brought about speculation that Bay may be eyeing Liebesman as his replacement for 'Transformers 5' which he still intends to produce even though he no longer desires to direct.