Transformers One Trailer Reveals Origins of Optimus Prime & Megatron

The trailer for the much anticipated Transformers: One is finally here, giving us our first looks at two Transformers icons before they became the leaders we know so well. Today Paramount premiered the trailer for the Josh Cooley-directed Transformers: One, which is a prequel film that takes place before war ravaged Cybertron. Due to the timeframe, we also meet Orion Pax and D-16, who will eventually become Optimus Prime and Megatron, though at this time they don’t even have the ability to transform yet. We’ll see their journey from friends to eternal enemies, but we’ll also see Elita-1, a prototype Bumblebee, and more. You can watch the first trailer in the video below.

Transformers: One boasts a talented voice cast led by Chris Hemsworth (Orion Pax) and Brian Tyree Henry (D-16). Scarlett Johansson will be voicing Elita-1, while Keegan-Michael Key will voice the early version of Bumblebee (B-127). Laurence Fishburne will voice Alpha Trion, and Jon Hamm will voice Sentinel Prime. You can find the official description for Transformers: One below.

“Transformers: One is 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.”

“I’m so excited and proud to be working with Hasbro and eOne to bring the first animated Transformers movie to theaters for a never-before-told story,” said Ramsey Naito, president of Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation (via Variety). “I’m honored to have such incredible talents come together to portray these well-known and much-loved characters in an origin story at the heart of the franchise.”

Transformers: One takes us back to the earliest days of two legends, and according to producer Lorenzo di Bonaventure, there is plenty of room for more films in this universe and timeframe, but the focus is on getting the first one right.

“I would say this, we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about two and three because it’s always hard to do one well,” di Bonaventure said. “But there is a natural trilogy coming out of this friendship where you can see the divisions and the possible attractions to each other, and why that should play out over three movies, is very natural.”

“So we have a good sense in the broadest terms, but in the broadest terms, we know what the second movie would be about and the third movie would be about through the eyes of what this relationship’s going through. So the exact plotting, we haven’t worked on that, but how that relationship evolves, devolves, evolves, devolves, all that stuff, that’s what’s going to drive it if we get lucky, if the first one’s a success,” di Bonaventure said.

Are you excited for Transformers: One? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things Transformers with me on Threads @mattaguilarcb!