Admittedly, the Transformers franchise is one filled with ups and downs. For every Bumblebee there’s a Last Knight. And with every Transformers (2007) there’s a Revenge of the Fallen. But this Fall, Hasbro is going to flip the script and send us something we haven’t seen before: the origins of Optimus Prime and Megatron in the animated anticipated release: Transformers One.
Huge thanks to NOC friend and contributor Ronald Alix for photos and coverage of this panel!
This past Thursday, only at San Diego Comic Con, The Nerds of Color was fortunate enough to attend the Transformers One panel. The upcoming animated tentpole features the voice talents of Chris Hemsworth, Keegan-Michael Key, Brian Tyree Henry, and Scarlett Johansson. And on hand for the incredible event was Hemsworth, Key, Henry, director Josh Cooley,, and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura.
Transformers One really goes back to the roots of this franchise, being the first animated movie within the Transformers universe since Transformers: The Movie back in 1986. And because of that, in many ways, Transformers One aims to be something reasonably different from what we’ve seen in recent Transformers films. And if what was shown in Hall H is any indication, I think that’s going to prove incredibly true.
“You’re really going to get to know the robots in a way that nothing has been able to do before,” stated di Bonaventura.
Take a look at some of the images we captured from the panel:
The cast and filmmakers showed off a considerable amount of new footage from the new film. There were approximately three clips total, and a new trailer.
The new trailer is something you can check out here:
However, as with all clips within Hall H, there was no recording allowed. However, here’s a breakdown of what was seen:
Clip #1:
The first clip was the most playful of the three. Orion Pax (later Optimus Prime) and his friend D-16 (later Megatron) find a prime spot to see a huge race happening within their town. Pax coerces D-16 into joining the race, and they almost win even without the ability to transform, but ultimately lose. They want to impress Sentinel Prime, leader of Cybertron. But are instead quickly embarrassed.
Clip #2:
The second clip shows D-16, Bumblebee, Orion Pax, and Elita meeting Lawrence Fishburne’s character, Alpha Trion. He informs them that the energon spark meant to allow them to transform was stolen from them, and he instead takes it upon himself to restore it in all 4 of them. The characters are now able to transform but aren’t quite able to control it. And thus hijinks ensue.
Clip #3:
The last clip showcased some fan favorites as the mining team (Bumblebee, D-16, Elita, and Orion Pax) come into contact with Starscream, voiced by Steve Buscemi, as well as Soundwave and Shockwave. In an opportunity where D-16 (Megatron) ends up standing up to Starscream, the argument and pressure build, and in an moment of intensity, D-16 is able to manifest a cannon on his arm, leaving all around him afraid, but especially Orion, his best friend.
Highlights during the panel included die-hard Transformers fan, Key, reciting the original 80s series theme song. On his favorite character, he went on to say, “There was one Transformer named Soundwave…he used to make that robot voice…I loved Soundwave.”
On the process of doing his first animated movie, Hemsworth had this to say: “The way animation works…we would individually shoot our scenes, and lucky enough we would get to see what each other had done. And that would influence our performance anyway…it was the first time I’d done animation and it was exciting to see all the pieces come together…For Josh, what an incredible job to assemble those pieces…We had a beautiful script and it was fun to work on.”
On his approach to animation, Henry stated, “I always try to find the heart, no matter what. Just because this is animation doesn’t mean that these lives are any less important, or have no emotion or range. So I just wanted to make sure that the viewer always felt that they were brought in to the trajectory that these characters were going through. So for D-16 we all know that he ultimately becomes Megatron, but I also wanted people to walk away feeling for him and understanding…that the world that he saw was very disillusioned, and he wanted to make things better.”
After the footage that was screened, I personally got the feeling that we will get a much stronger, character-driven movie than we’ve seen in the past. And we’ll see truly fleshed out versions of Optimus Prime and Megatron, in ways we haven’t before. This is one to get excited for folks!
Transformers One hits theaters September 20!