According to Mashable’s Jeff Sneider, Paramount Pictures wants British actor Liam Garrigan to play King Arthur, the legendary leader who wielded the magical sword Excalibur, in Transformers: The Last Knight.
If Garrigan ends up signing on for the fifth installment in the Michael Bay-directed film series, it will be the second time in his acting career that he’ll portray the role of King Arthur. The 34-year-old actor has played King Arthur in ABC’s fairy tale-based television series Once Upon a Time, making his debut in the Season 5 premiere.
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Even though an official synopsis hasn’t been released, rumors have persisted that Transformers: The Last Knight will incorporate elements from the classic story of King Arthur, including Excalibur and Merlin. According to Joblo.com, Optimus Prime is on a quest to find the remains of Cybertron, the Transformers home planet. After finding out that he was responsible for its demise, he comes upon a way to revive the age-old planet by finding and using Excalibur, and that will lead him back to Earth.
Garrigan’s other acting credits include 24: Live Another Day, Strike Back and the Starz miniseries The Pillars of the Earth.
The cast of Transformers: The Last Knight will feature Mark Wahlberg (“Planet of the Apes”) as Cade Yeager, Isabela Moner (“100 Things To Do Before High School”) as Izabella, Josh Duhamel (“Life as We Know It”) as Lieutenant Colonel William Lennox, and Tyrese Gibson (“Furious 7”) as Robert Epps, as well as Jerrod Carmichael (“Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising”), Anthony Hopkins (“Thor: The Dark World”), and of course, Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime.
Michael Bay, who has directed the previous four installments in Transformers live-action film franchise, returns to direct the fifth installment. Transformers: The Last Knight was written by a trio of screenwriters: Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, and Ken Nolan.
The Paramount and Hasbro partnership is responsible for the worldwide blockbuster success of the Transformers franchise, which has earned $3.8 billion to-date, and whose films, directed by Bay, are amongst the highest grossing movies of all time.
Transformers: The Last Knight is set for release June 23, 2017.
