Transformers One Star Has A Perfect Reference Point For Bumblebee’s Origin

The next Transformers movie is almost a month away from premiering and will be the first animated Transformers movie to hit theaters since the 1986 feature. Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Keegan-Michael Key, Scarlett Johansson, and more voice the iconic characters with Hemsworth and Henry taking on Orion Pax and D-16 before they were Optimus Prime and Megatron, respectively.

Paramount released a quick featurette with the interviews with the cast about their roles and the characters’ major differences from what we’ve seen.

“What intrigued me was the origin story,” Hemsworth says. “And to be voicing Optimus Prime is another level. He begins as Orion Pax, he’s a worker in the mines, this is his journey to become the all-powerful, all-knowing Optimus Prime. This film has an incredible cast…and it was a lot of fun.” Both Hemsworth and Henry acknowledge the story revolves around the budding relationship and inevitable fallout between their characters.

Key compared Bumblebee to a silent film star in the previous movies and was excited to give the character an actual voice. “Over the last few movies, he was like a silent movie star but now we get to imbue him with his voice.”

Both Key and Henry give praise to Johansson for bringing Elita-1 to life, calling the character tough and strong. Transformers fans might know Elita, or Flareup, as the older sister to Arcee and Chromia. There are also brief snippets of Jon Hamm as Sentinel Prime and Lawernce Fishburne as Alpha Trion.

Transformers One arrives in theaters on September 20.