The official trailer for Transformers One is here, giving us a look at the first animated Transformers movie in 40 years.
In addition to the CG-based animation style, we also get a glimpse of the early friendship between Optimus Prime and Megatron – known in this film as Orion Pax and D-16, respectively – before they became enemies. In fact, the show begins with Orion Pax (voiced by Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) having a friendly scuffle before they meet up with B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key) before he was known as Bumblebee. Elita-One (Scarlett Johansson) will also play a prominent role in what's being called a sort of “origin story” for the “bots.”
In an interview with IGN, director Josh Cooley (Inside Out, Toy Story 4) explained more about the plot and what ultimately drives Optimus Prime and Megatron to separate, saying: “Something happens on their planet (Cybertron) where they both have two different reactions.” ” We got a little glimpse of their struggle in the trailer, with Orion asking Pax, “Don't you want to see what's up there?”, and D-16 shouting, “There's a reason no one's on the roof.”
However, they reach the surface, with a shot of the four in awe. What follows is some fun shots of the group exploring the surface, as well as getting to see their transformation abilities for the first time. They are experimenting with these forces with fairly mixed results.
“It's time to show them that we are more than meets the eye,” says Orion Bax.
To add to the fun, the trailer was shot from space, with a spacecraft revealing the footage from 125,000 feet above Earth. Here on Earth, it's our first official look at Transformers One since Paramount Pictures showed off some 3D scenes to attendees at CinemaCon last week.
Transformers One will be in theaters on September 13.
Alex Stedman is a senior news editor at IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.