From San Diego Comic-Con today Paramount Animation and Hasbro offered fans a more in-depth look at the upcoming Transformers One, a prequel to the blockbuster toy and media franchise, the first-ever fully CG-animated Transformers movie and the bots’ first animated theatrical outing since 1986. A brand-new trailer and fresh poster art dropped along with new details divulged at the SDCC panel.
Transformers One is the untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever.
The Con event was opened by producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who screened a clip of a competitive race on Cybertron, which he noted “would probably cost $500 million” in live action. Orion Pax / Optimus Prime (voiced by Chris Hemsworth) wants to enter, but D-16 / Megatron (Brian Tyree Henry) cools his jets, as they are both part of the Miners pact and are not permitted to race. Jon Hamm is featured as the voice of Sentinel Prime, who gives a speech about a battle that killed off other Primes.
Hemsworth and Henry were on stage alongside Keegan-Michael Key, who voices B-127 / Bumblebee, and Oscar winning director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4). Hemsworth was enthusiastic about “The first time I’ve done animation” and the film’s “beautiful script” and “fun relationship [between Orion Pax and D-16] to work on.”
Cooley, who told the audience that he had a “Tolkien-length history” to delve into with Hasbro’s Transformers bible, revealed that a key element of the story is the “T-Cog” which enables the bots to transform, and that Transformers One shows “a whole generation of Transformers born without it.” The audience was shown a clip of Alpha Trion (Laurence Fishburne) bestowing the T-Cog on the Cybertronians. Another clip gave a first look at Steve Buscemi voicing Star Scream, who gets in a fight with D-16 that is broken up by Orion Pax.
The voice cast also features Scarlett Johansson as Elita-1. Check out the new trailer:
[Sources: Paramount Pictures, Deadline]