Other than human casting choices and the introduction of an Autobot Ferrari as the first non-GM Transformer vehicle, information on Michael Bay’s Transformers 3 has been hard to come by. We’ve heard nothing about who the new villain will be or even a vague idea of what the plot will revolve around.

Earlier today, USA Today ran an article where Michael Bay and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura both acknowledged Revenge of the Fallen was an imperfect film, with the director then promising the third (and final?) film will make up for the Fallen’s shortcomings.

“I’ll take some of the criticism,” said Bay about Revenge of the Fallen. “It was very hard to put (the sequel) together that quickly after the writers’ strike (of 2007-08).” Lorenzo added, “We tried to do too many things in the second movie, which didn’t give enough time in any one of them. We were constantly jumping to the next piece of information, the next place.”

One of the biggest criticisms from everyone who saw Revenge of the Fallen where the antics of the Autobot Twins Skids and Mudflap, characters Bay says won’t be a factor in the third film. “One thing we’re getting rid of is what I call the dorky comedy,” Bay explains. “They’re basically gone,” he continues in reference to the Twins, though does confirm former Sector 7 agent John Turturro is back to offer comic relief. I think you can infer from “basically gone” that the Twins will leave Earth or be killed in the film’s opening action sequence.

The article states the plot of Transformers 3 will be tied into the space race between the U.S.S.R. and the USA, following the previous film’s themes of looking to the past for Transformer meddling in human history. “The movie is more of a mystery,” Bay says. “It ties in what we know as history growing up as kids with what really happened.”

With the Fallen down and out, old school Decepticon Shockwave will enter the scene as the new villain. Although Optimus Prime, Megatron and Sam all died and were resurrected in the previous films, death in Transformers 3 will be a permanent condition. “As a trilogy, it really ends,” Bay concludes. “It could be rebooted again, but I think it has a really killer ending.”