Form up and roll out! Paramount Animation is turning the ignition key of San Diego Comic-Con 2024 for a Transformers One panel to start this year’s celebration of superheroes, comic books, film, television, and more! The annual event returns to form after years of COVID-19 cancelations, Hollywood strikes, and major studios bowing out of the show in the final hours. I would say fans are in for a breath of fresh air, but if you’ve ever been to San Diego Comic-Con, you know that’s a false promise. Remember to wear your deodorant, friends. It will be a packed show, and the gradual heat death of California won’t do anyone any favors.
Transformers One is the untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but once, they were friends who bonded like brothers and forever changed the fate of Cybertron. In the first-ever fully CG-animated Transformers movie, Transformers One features a star-studded voice cast, including Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, with Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm.
Paramount’s Transformers One panel began with a sizzle reel establishing the feud between Optimus Prime (Chris Hemsworth) and Megatron (Brian Tyree Henry), using footage from other movies. Transformers One shows how the duo went from being friends to sworn enemies, and the animated film follows the same chronology as the other movie.
Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura spoke at the show, saying, “If we were to do this live-action, it would cost $500 million. In the movies, it costs a fortune to animate them speaking; in animation, they don’t have to worry about that, so you’ll get to know them in a way you never did in the movies or cartoons.”
Josh Cooley, who directs Transformers One, addressed the crowd, saying Transformers made him want to be an animator. He was fascinated by how Optimus Prime and Megatron became enemies. Cooley’s emotional connection to the Transformers property reminds him of his brother. Cooley became a director; his brother became a homicide detective. He liked exploring how brothers can go in wildly different directions.
Next, Paramount shared footage of the film, beginning with a race, like an Olympics on Megatron called the Icon 500. Optimus Prime and Megatron watch as Sentinel Prime enters. The purpose of this scene is to show how things look when things are good on Cybertron, not only when things are bad (as we’ve seen in the other films). Optimus and Megatron throw on jet packs and join in the race uninvited, with Optimus saying, “We need to show them we’re more than meets the eye.” It’s worth noting the duo are minors and are unable to transform.
Next, Keegan-Michael Key leads the crowd in a sing-a-long for the Transformers theme. There are lyrics to that? When the song ended, Key said, “Oh, now we know who’s over 40 now!” Brian Tyree Henry said Ratchett is his favorite Transformer, and his parents only bought him villain toys, so he played with Megatron. He would often make him the hero during playtime.
Meanwhile, Chris Hemsworth says the nostalgia around Transformers and the cartoons made him want to do the movie. He enjoys the lessons and the escapism. Transformers One is his first time participating in animation, so he’s excited to see how it turns out. Hemsworth and Henry joked that they spent months together sleeping in bunk beds to build their chemistry.
The delivery of voice work changes as the film continues. Early on, Hemsworth and Henry sound like friends, but as the movie goes on, they start to sound more like their counterparts in the live-action films, with Hemsworth and Henry modifying their performances. Henry got emotional on stage, telling the crowd, “It’s hard to lose a friendship, as it’s heartbreaking in a different way than losing a lover as you sign on for something different. It’s more haunting in some ways.” Henry says he still thinks about the friends he lost every day.
Hemsworth also spoke about the great Peter Cullen, saying, “What Cullen has done is inspiring and terrifying.” As an actor, Hemsworth says he never sought to make an impression, as he’s playing a much younger, brash version of the character. If they had done the film with the characters as we know them now, he wouldn’t have done it as he would have been mimicking Cullen. He didn’t want to do that.
In another clip, a generation of Transformers were built without the cog in their chest that allows them to transform. In the film, Optimus, Megatron, Alita, and Bumblebee don’t have cogs, but they acquire them as the film goes on.
Transformers One will hit theaters on September 20th.
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