The animated origin story of Autobot leader Optimus Prime and his Decepticon rival Megatron will come to the big screen this September in Transformers One, with Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry voicing the friends turned enemies. The first trailer for Transformers One sets the tone for the Cybertron-set adventure, with Prime (then known as Orion Pax) and Megatron being pretty chummy in a buddy comedy kind of way.
But Paramount Pictures has promised that Transformers One will explain how the pair devolve from brothers-in-arms to sworn enemies, so expect plenty of drama in the Industrial Light & Magic-animated feature. But as the first trailer illustrates, expect a fair amount of laughs and action.
Optimus Prime and Megatron’s early years have been explored in animated series and comic books, but Transformers One appears to be an original take on their shared origin story. It also promises to have a Unicron-sized scope, according to longtime Transformers movie series producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. “You could not make this movie live-action,” the producer told Polygon last year. “If we did it in live-action it would cost twice what we normally would spend on a big Transformers movie.”
Joining Hemsworth and Henry in the animated film’s cast are Scarlett Johansson as Elita, Keegan-Michael Key as Bumblebee, Jon Hamm as Sentinel Prime, and Laurence Fishburne as Alpha Trion. 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. 13.
