Transformers Cast Announced: Writers Web Chat Summary

Sorry for being late in posting this, life got in the way. Without further ado, the highlights of the today's chat with the writers of the Transformers.

Autobot Cast:
Optimus Prime (known)
Bumblebee (known)
Jazz
Rachet (known or at least hinted at in by Megan Fox)
Ironhide

Decepticon Cast:
Megatron (known)
Starscream (known)
Brawl (known)
Barricade
Bonecrusher (known)
Scorponok (known)
Frenzy
Blackout

Character descriptions:
- Mr. Orci said, "every society has that noble king. That King Arthur."
- Bumblebee is the "same underdog, same G1 character we know and love." and that despite being a Chevrolet Camaro "The clothes don't make the man." Be aware that Hasbro had approached BMW to make a Bumblebee Alternator/Binal-Tech toy but they declined as they did not want to be associated with war toys. I am betting that policy extended to the movie.
- Jazz's attitude is "can't do something with style it's not worth doing at all."
- Rachet continues to be the medic of the group but will not match is Gen One alt mode (good call, his alt mode was ugly even then).
- Ironhide remains the gutsy muscle of the group (hopefully new alt mode too) and make "any Transformer bust an O-ring just with his stare."
- Megs will be explored beyond just the usual evil, destroy this and that mentality.
- Starscream will continue to try "to best Megatron."
- Brawl is an "extremely pissed off Decepticon" and is based on other iterations of the Transformers (not sure which one) which may continue in sequels.
- Bonecrusher is basically Megatron's willing slave.
- Barricade os the Saleen Mustang police car seen here and who likes to hunt down the Autobots.
- Scorponok is closest to the Beast Wars iteration with a "little bit of flavors from the other things."
- Frenzy is the replacement Soundwave. The alt mode will be a stereo. Before you moan, remember that the goal is pseudo realism, so could you take seriouslyseriousily as some 3 foot tall Decepticon? I couldn't. Better to not do it at all if can't do it right, so good decision in my opinion.
- Blackout is the EMP guy. Has the weapons to knock out most electronic items, which of course means uh ohs for the military and the Autobots.

Q&A portion:- The writers grew with G1 so they believe they are very familiar with the Transformer universe.
- They use the toys to help figure out the words that fit the character.
- The movie does not require to audience to be familiar with the TF universe but there will be references that fans will understand.
- The ratio of characters is greater then the rumors 70% humans, 30% robots. How much greater was not indicated. Humans do have a strong part as the approach is Jurassic Park in the awe of the first interaction with sentient machines on a grand scale.
- "There is no cheating. No mass shifting." (hince why no Soundwave)
- The reason for more Decepticons then Autobots is to emphasize that in order for the Autobots to triumph, they would need to "use togetherness, unity, [and] friendship."
- The hate/hate more relationship between Megatron and Starscream will be honored.
- For weapons, in robot mode, mostly the pulse kind, in alt mode, whatever matches that mode such as missles, bullets etc.
- For voice actors, "everybody you would want to be considered is being considered."
- To close the chat, a mention was of an upcoming contest - Write a line for Optimus Prime. The site for it will be live in a few weeks and the winner will have their line spoken by Optimus.


Thanks to TFformers.com for the summary which you can read here.