‘Bumblebee’: New Trailer for the Transformers Spinoff Revealed

Hasbro and Paramount have released a new trailer for their anticipated Transformers spinoff Bumblebee, and it seems to have a great deal of heart.

As you can see in the footage, there is still plenty of vehicle mayhem and action, including a certain fight with beloved Decepticon Starscream, but at the center of this film is a new friendship between Bumblebee and Charlie. If it is able to get fans invested in that friendship and make it real, the studio will have successfully pivoted its franchise away from just being about big effects and explosions.

You can see the full trailer in the video above.

Director Travis Knight seems focused on delivering a film with equal amounts heart and spectacle.

“I wanted to approach this massive, expansive franchise and really focus in on a tiny corner of the canvas,” Knight told Empire. “Everything I’ve tried to do at Laika, searching for an artful blend of darkness and light, intensity, and warmth, humor and heart, I wanted to bring to the Transformers franchise. At its core it’s just a beautiful love story between two broken souls who find each other and heal each other. I grew up loving those classic Spielbergian Amblin films. And we’re trying to evoke that kind of emotion in this movie, fusing a rich coming-of-age story with some sci-fi insanity.”

Hopefully, the film succeeds in that goal and could be the key to breathing some new life into the long-running franchise.

You can find the official synopsis below.

“On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug.”

Bumblebee is produced by Transformers franchise veterans Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Michael Bay, along with executive producers Steven Spielberg, Brian Goldner and Mark Vahradian. Chris Brigham (Argo, Inception) will also executive produce. The screenplay is written by Christina Hodson (Unforgettable).

Bumblebee stars Hailee Steinfeld (Edge of Seventeen), John Cena (Daddy’s Home 2), Pamela Adlon (Better Things), Stephen Schneider (Broad City), Jorge Lendenborg Jr. (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Jason Drucker (Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Hall), Kenneth Choi (American Crime Story), Ricardo Hoyos (Degrassi: Next Class), Abby Quinn (Landline), Rachel Crow (Deidra & Laney Rob a Train), and Grace Dzienny (Zoo).

Bumblebee hits theaters on December 21.