Trailer for origin story, "Transformers One" debuts

The eighth installment in the Transformers film franchise, which follows robots that can transform into other objects and battle each other to defend the world, follows the beginnings of the characters of Optimus Prime and Megatron on the planet, Cybertron, where the film will explain what events led to the rivalry between the main two types of Transformers robots: the Autobots and the Decepticons.

The film has been in development since the release of 2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction. There had been ideas to develop future films that became a reality, with Transformers: The Last Knight, Bumblebee, and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts all being released in 2017, 2018, and 2023 respectively.  

Transformers One marks the first film in the modern franchise to be animated.

As the years went by, the film changed in stages from a concept to a reality, with Josh Cooley of Toy Story 4 fame being revealed as the movie’s director in April 2020 and the voice cast comprised of Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry as the younger versions of Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively being unveiled at CinemaCon in April 2023. 

As an origin story, the movie follows young Optimus Prime and Megatron from their beginnings, when they were known only as Orion Pax and D-16, respectively. The movie will focus on the relationship between the two characters and what led to the two becoming archenemies.

The trailer for the film was released in April 2024, and Variety explains, it shows how the two characters were merely just worker bots who could not yet transform into anything, and soon develop the ability to, “change into vehicles and gain weapons, as a battle against a mysterious, plant-like villain unfolds on the Transformers’ home planet of Cybertron.”

Paramount describes it as, “the long-awaited origin story of how the most iconic characters in the Transformers universe, Orion Pax and D-16, went from brothers-in-arms to become sworn enemies, Optimus Prime and Megatron.” 

In addition to Hemsworth and Henry, the cast also includes other famous actors and actresses such as Scarlett Johansson,  Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm, Steve Buscemi, and Laurence Fishburne.

While Transformers first appeared as a feature film in a 1986 animated movie, it was the Michael Bay directed 2007 film, Transformers, starring Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox, that launched the modern franchise.

The original film grossed, “$700 million at the box office and spawned five sequels and a spinoff. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, the most recent entry, debuted last summer and grossed $439 million at the global box office.” 

At CinemaCon at the Caesars Palace Colosseum in Las Vegas on April 18, Hemsworth and Henry promoted the film, giving audiences a sneak peek of the first scene of the movie in 3D.

Johansson was able to be a part of the presentation via a recorded message while she was away working on Eleanor the Great, which will be her directorial debut, saying, “I’m so incredibly proud of the work that we’ve all done.. [it is].. unlike anything you’ve ever seen onscreen.”

Hemsworth told exhibitors that Transformers One audiences, “will experience something truly spectacular.”

Henry added that, “This origin story is how they transformed from brothers in arms to sworn enemies.”

Audiences can see Transformers One in theaters this September.