Image source: hotwallpaper2013.com

Four years. Can you imagine that it has been four years since Megan Fox last graced the screen as pioneer Transformers leading lady Mikaela Banes?

More remarkably, it has been seven years since we were first awed and Fox was transformed into a world-famous sex symbol in 2007′s Transformers.

With Transformers: Age of Extinction showing in the cinemas and its new leading lady, Nicola Peltz, in the limelight, perhaps it is time for us to take a look back at the first ever Transformers gal, who also perfected the art of leaning on motor vehicles.

And while we’re at it, let’s see what Fox has been doing with her career since she departed the franchise for good.

THE MEGAN FOX ERA

Image source: skandaliky.sk

Transformers was the epitome of a “dude flick”; for male audiences, the Autobots were the dream pals, the Decepticons were the dream villains, and Fox was the dream girl. The dream girl who took the art of leaning (and posing) on cars and motorcycles to a completely different level (though it was really Michael Bay who was directing the shots).

And boy, do we miss the days when a lovestruck and dorky Sam Witwicky, with the face of Shia LaBeouf, endearingly chased Mikaela with Player’s Baby Come Back. She was out of his league, of course, but Sam had a 1975-turned-fifth-generation Chevrolet Camaro that was also an Autobot in disguise. Needless to say, he won the girl, and so began the charming pairing that was the face of the franchise.

We were all happy, and Fox was rising on an ever-growing mountain of cha-ching and star power. But good times don’t last, and the Shia and Megan era was no different.

ADIOS, MIKAELA

Who knew at the time that 2009′s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen would be the last time we would see Megan/Mikaela in the franchise? We didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye!

Image source: blog.motorcycle.com

Originally supposed to star in the third Transformers film, Fox was reportedly fired from the franchise (on orders of Mr Steven Spielberg himself) when, in an interview with Wonderland, she likened director Michael Bay to one Adolf Hitler.

What a thing to say to the man who turned her into a star! With that, it was adios Mikaela, hello Carly.

In the next film, Bay attempted to fill the Mikaela void — you determine if he was successful or not — with Victoria’s Secret Angel Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. To explain Fox’s departure within the Transformers realm, we were told that Sam and Mikaela had simply broken up.

Yes, after all that “Sam plus Mikaela forever plus ever” hoo-hah in the first two films, the almost-iconic pairing’s entire journey was for naught. Let us say in Regina George style, “Boo, you scriptwriters!”

THE GLAMOUR DAYS ARE OVER

It is with (some level of) sadness that we report that, post-Transformers, Megan Fox’s career has been far from glamourous.

It has, really, only headed in one direction; down.

After leaving the franchise that launched her career, Fox portrayed bitchy cheerleader Jennifer in the horror flop Jennifer’s Body, before starring as a prostitute in Jonah Hex, a winged circus freak in Passion Play, and as herself in The Dictator, where her only scene featured her (again, playing herself) having sex with Sacha Baron Cohen’s General Aladeen.

It really shouldn’t shock anyone that all of these projects turned out to be as absurd as they sound and were certified “Rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes.

Fox did have a brief somewhat redeeming moment as Adam Scott’s girlfriend in Friends With Kids, her only technically decent film in the past several years, as far as critics and ratings go.

Her post-Transformers career has, so far, really been more of a postmortem. Because the star that we knew appears to have disappeared with Mikaela Banes.

WHAT’S UP NEXT?

Fox’s upcoming film is relatively high profile, considering how her career has fared in recent years.

She will play April O’Neil in the live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,which is ironically produced by Michael Bay. Partly due to the awkward and almost-scary-looking giant talking turtles in the trailers, online reaction to the film appears to be love-it-or-hate-it.

That might not be the surest sign of redemption.

HOT MAMA

On the bright side, Fox has found the time to settle down since getting the boot in Transformers.

Fox married actor Brian Austin Green in 2010, six years after they began dating.

She might not look anything like it, but she has given birth to two boys in the past two years. Her first son, Noah Shannon Green, was born in September 2012, and the second, Bodhi Ransom Green, was born in February 2014. Fox is also a step-mom to Green’s son from a previous relationship.

Whether Megan Fox manages to redeem her career or not, at least we’ll have her promising, rising star days immortalised on film for us to revisit.