The Last Knight will bring back Age of Extinction star Mark Wahlberg as tech-savvy inventor Cade Yeager, in addition to Transformers 1-3 costar Josh Duhamel as Colonel Will Lennox and possibly Tyrese Gibson as Sergeant Epps too (assuming the matter is still up in the air, as Bay teased via social media). 100 Things to Do Before High School star Isabela Moner and The Carmichael Show headliner Jerrod Carmichael are reportedly onboard to play new characters in the fifth Transformers installment, though specific details on their roles in the Last Knight script – reportedly written by Matt Holloway and Art Marcum (Iron Man) as well as Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down) – remain under wraps for the time being.

Additional casting updates for Transformers: The Last Knight should be arriving sooner than later, seeing as Bay has confirmed (via Instagram) that production on the movie will be getting underway in Cuba this week (see his comment on the video below). The Last Knight announcement video posted online a couple days ago by Paramount Pictures stated that production on the movie will begin in June, but it’s not uncommon for Hollywood tentpoles nowadays to begin production before the start date that is announced by the studio behind them. For example, earlier this year Alex Kurtzman started to roll camera on The Mummy before Universal Pictures made the news official with the release of the project’s synopsis.

Transformers: The Last Knight will be the second modern big-budget Hollywood production to film in Cuba, following shortly after Fast & Furious 8 began filming there back at the end of April. The past Bay-directed Transformers movies have also been partially shot outside of the U.S., with Revenge of the Fallen having filmed in such countries as Jordan and Egypt, while a good chunk of Age of Extinction was shot in China for marketing purposes; which is to say, it’s not surprising to see that Last Knight will continue that practice, seeing as the Transformers movie franchise is now more popular than ever when it comes to the international box office.

As to why Last Knight is filming in Cuba, that remains open for speculation. Transformers fans have already begun to speculate about the elements of Transformers cartoon series and comic book mythology that could be integrated into the fifth live-action movie, based on the “clues” provided by the Last Knight announcement video (which shows what appears to be a Prime with purple eyes), as well as the film’s subtitle. Future Transformers sequels and spinoffs alike are apparently going to explore an over-arching narrative that connects the various films together in the style of a full-blown “shared universe,” starting with Last Knight next year. Bay’s last (?) Transformers movie will lay the foundation for that larger storyline, so hopefully the director ends his time on the franchise with a bang (… and we don’t mean a literal explosion, mind you).

NEXT: Transformers: The Last Knight to Film in Detroit & London

Transformers: The Last Knight opens in U.S. theaters on June 23rd, 2017, followed by the Bumblebee spinoff on June 8th, 2018, and Transformers 6 on June 28th, 2019.

Source: Emmey keys