TRANSFORMERS ONE Producer Speaks Highly of Chris Hemsworth's Optimus Prime Voice
I’m actually a lot more excited about the upcoming animated Transformers One movie than I am for any of the live-action Transformers projects. There’s a lot of exciting potential and this thing could tell a great and epic story.
There are some big changes coming with this movie, and one of the biggest is that Chris Hemsworth will be providing the voice of a younger version of Optimus Prime. Peter Cullen will not reprise his role in this movie, but in a recent interview with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, he shared that he is excited for Hemsworth and praised his Optimus Prime voice. While talking to Collider, Di Bonaventura said:
“Also, it’s the imagination of our artists and our director, and one of the great things is, as you actually put the voices to the characters. When we first listen to Chris Hemsworth’s voice, you’re like, ‘God, is he gonna be a good Optimus!’ Obviously, he starts as Orion Pax and you don’t become Optimus for a while, so he’s not playing, for most of the movie, what we think of as Optimus, Peter Cullen. So it’s that transition, and Chris’s voice has a timbre that… it’s logical that Peter Cullen would take over that voice, if you would, which is really great, the fans are gonna really feel great.”
Di Bonaventura also went on to say that Scarlett Johansson is “amazing” as the character Elita in the movie. The rest of the cast includes Brian Tyree Henry as Megatron, Keegan-Michael Key as Bumblebee, Jon Hamm as Sentinel Prime, and Laurence Fishburne as Alpha Trion.
Transformers One is a prequel film that revolves around the origins of Cybertron, and the story will center on a young Optimus Prime and Megatron who are finding their path. It was previously revealed:
"This is … the origin story of young Megatron and young Optimus. If you know the origin, they started as friends, and over time things devolved for them and they ended up on two sides. So we're telling the young Optimus and the young Megatron story. We really are telling the origin story of all Transformers, both what they were at the beginning of it, to how they grow, to how they grow apart."
This will be the first of what Di Bonaventura calls a "natural trilogy,” and it’s going to explore “Cybertron in a way you've never seen it, that no one's ever seen it before.”
There’s a lot to be excited about with this movie! This is a story I’m excited about seeing brought to life! The film is being directed by Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4) from a script he wrote with Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari.
Transformers One is scheduled to hit theaters on September 13, 2024.