The next movie in the Transformers film franchise that launched with Michael Bay’s 2007 movie Transformers takes the action back to Cybertron. Transformers One will tell the origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, and the BFF breakup that split the robots in disguise into two warring factions, the Autobots and Decepticons.
A new trailer for Transformers One, coming out of San Diego Comic-Con, shows that in addition to action and heart, there’s also plenty of humor in the animated film producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura describes as a “biblical” prequel.
Those laughs come courtesy of Chris Hemsworth (the voice of Orion Pax, who later becomes Optimus Prime) and Brian Tyree Henry (the voice of D-16, a proto-Megatron), who have solid chemistry as the friends-turned-enemies. Keegan-Michael Key’s B-127 (aka Bumblebee) is also a rich vein of slapstick comic relief and silly one-liners.
Joining Hemsworth, Henry, and Key in Transformers One are Scarlett Johansson as Elita-One, Jon Hamm as Sentinel Prime, Laurence Fishburne as Alpha Trion, and Steve Buscemi in an unannounced role. (Buscemi voiced the mechanic Daytrader in Transformers: The Last Knight. His Transformers One role is undisclosed so far.) Josh Cooley, the former Pixar artist and screenwriter who directed Toy Story 4, is helming Transformers One. Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari, who co-wrote Ant-Man and the Wasp and Hulu’s No Exit, penned the script.
Transformers One will hit movie theaters on Sept. 20.
