Chris Hemsworth is Optimus Prime. It’s a statement that brings a lot of excitement but also a lot of expectations from the actor. In a newly announced Transformers movie, Chris Hemsworth will take on the role of the famous and fan-favorite Autobots leader. The film will act as an animated prequel to the Transformers live-action saga, with Hemsworth playing a younger version of Peter Cullen’s voice-iteration of the character.
The announcement came from Paramount Animation amidst the new trailer update on its recent live-action project, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. For a long time in Michael Bay’s Transformers series, we’d heard of the infamous war on Cybertron that left the planet devastated, leading to the Transformers’ arrival on Earth in search of the ‘cube’. At CinemaCon, the film’s title was revealed to be Transformers One.
The prequel will unravel the events that led to the Cybertron War, which is why Prime can’t be the only Transformer to take center stage in Transformers One. The film has also roped in Academy Award nominee Brian Tyree Henry as Decepticon leader Megatron. The movie might explore how the two brothers-in-arms went on to become each other’s nemesis owing to their differences.
Transformers One has burst into a full-blown Marvel Cinematic Universe reunion as two more actors from the famous continuity have also crossed over to Cybertron. Scarlett Johansson has been cast as Elita. Elita has appeared in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for a very small part. However, she is vital as she served as the acting Autobot leader when Optimus left the planet for a few million years. Besides Johansson, Hemsworth, and Henry, Ant-Man and The Wasp actor Laurence Fishburne will voice Alpha Trion. Alpha Trion is regarded as one of the oldest and wisest of Primes, possessing superior strategic intelligence and experience.
A non-MCU inclusion, but still worthy, comes in the form of Jon Hamm. The Mad Men actor will voice Sentinel Prime, Optimus’ leader and mentor. In Transformers: Dark of the Moon, it was revealed that Sentinel betrayed the Autobots in the Cybertronian War and helped Megatron in re-accessing the ‘pillars’ for re-orbiting of their planet. If Transformers One is to be an actual predecessor to the film franchises, it will retain some aspects of Bay’s films.
Transformers One will be the franchise’s first theatrical animated feature release in nearly four decades. Animated projects have wide popularity. And for a franchise like Transformers, an animated project will bring back a lot of nostalgia for the fans who have long followed Hasbro’s original animated television series.
Transformers One is slated to release on July 19, 2024.