CinemaCon Presentation Brings Transformers One Trailer, GI Joe Crossover News

This week is CinemaCon, an annual gathering of studio execs and theater owners where the next year plus of movie plans are presented. With it often comes news on possible movie plans for the next year to two year. This year at Paramount's presentation, they brought Chris Hemsworth (voice of Orion Pax) and Brian Tyree Henry (voice of D-16) along to speak about Transformers One that is set for release on September 13, 2024. 

The animated movie will present the origin story of the Transformers civil war when friends Orion Pax and D-16 became bitter enemies and leaders of their factions as Optimus Prime and Megatron. Scarlett Johansson (Elita-1) via pre-recorded video introduced Hemsworth. Other voice cast include Jon Hamm (Sentinel Prime), Laurence Fishburne (Alpha Trion), Keegan-Michael Key (Bumblebee), and Steve Buscemi. 

The key bit for fans is a trailer for the movie will drop on Thursday, April 18, no exact time specified but usually this tends to be in the morning eastern time. The official logo was also made available to the public via X/Twitter. As for what those at the presentation saw, it was a scene "in 3D as the guys seek refuge inside a train and tussle with Elita-1. The train speeds of and crashes through the surface. “It’s beautiful,” says Orion Pax who begs Elita to listen to what he has to say, “We know where the matrix of leadership is… We found a message… It will change all of our lives.” 

While not part of the Transformers One presentation, Paramount did reveal future movie plans. Part of that is confirmation that Transformers/G.I. Joe is part of their official plans. Keep in mind plans are subject to change, say due to a sell of the studio that is in the works. Per their contracts, the usual gaggle of producers (Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay, Don Murphy, etc.) will get their cut and pretend to be involved in production but Lorenzo di Bonavantura is driving this train. No writer or director has been announced. Thanks to Feris O. for the heads-up.

Every hero has an origin. #TransformersOne arrives in theatres this September. pic.twitter.com/12mt6em1Z2

— Transformers (@transformers) April 11, 2024

Transformers Animated Film Announces Title, Voice Cast

During the Paramount presentation at an industry convention, more details about the Transformers animated film was revealed.  To start the film is called Transformers: One. The primary voice cast is Chris Hemsworth (Thor movies) as Optimus Prime, Brian Tyree Henry (Bullet Train) as Megatron, Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) as Elita, Keegan-Michael Key (Reboot) as Bumblebee, Jon Hamm (Confess, Fletch) as Sentinel Prime, and Laurence Fishburne (John Wick) as Alpha Trion. The animated movie is being done by ILM, directed by Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4), written by Andrew Barrer & Gabriel Farreri with release set for July 19, 2024. Click here to see an image from the film and its title card. Would post here but Getty Images tends to be lawsuit happy.

Turns out the Transformers One title and the origin plan has been around for quite a while as I found two references to it in the site archives going back to 2015 and 2017. It was just so long ago that I completely forgot about it. Suffice it to say, this has been a movie literally eight years in the making.

No explanation on what the "One" part means but guessing part of it is a reference to the "Generation One" label that is used to zero in on the 1980s version of the characters in toys, cartoons, and comics. The story is set millions of years ago entirely on Cybertron, before the Transformers civil war started when Optimus Prime and Megatron were young and friends rather then enemies. Sentinel Prime in the Bay movies was a mentor of Optimus that betrayed him. In the IDW comics continuity, he was the leader of the planet who turned his position into a dictatorship who would tolerate no dissent. A leadership that was stopped by Megatron and Orion Pax working together. Pax succeeds him as the next Prime, named Optimus Prime. At this point I suspect the Bay film continuity will have little influence on the film story while the comics may provide inspiration but likely the story will go in a different and simplified direction compared to the IDW stories. Alpha Trion is essentially the wise old teacher with great advice, who seems to know everyone and everything who took a particular shine to Orion Pax. Elita, also called Elita-1 in the comics and cartoon universes, is the girlfriend of Orion Pax/Optimus Prime. There is way more to her story then that but I suspect that will be the core purpose of the character in the movie.

New Details on Animated ILM Transformers Movie, Release Date

This year brings Transformers: Rise of the Beasts but next year has another movie set for release with a Transformers animated movie aiming for release on July 19, 2024 and directed by Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4). Lorenzo di Bonaventura, producer on the Transformers franchise since the first Bay film, spoke with Collider about the film providing some information on the story.

The key takeaways from the interview with di Bonaventura is the film is set entirely on Cybertron, will explore the "origin story of young Megatron and young Optimus" and how their friendship shifted into war. He also described as "the origin story of of all Transformers" which he later elaborated on saying " origins of the society, and what broke it apart." The story is such that they can do a "natural trilogy" if the first film is successful enough. As for why an animated movie, he said " If you tried to make this live-action, it would probably be a billion-dollar movie or something." The key quote on story is below.

"You're going to see a lot of the origins of the society, and what broke it apart. The analogy for me is a bit like Krypton when you saw the planet falling apart, and all that. We're not there for a short time, we're there the entire time of the movie, we're on Cybertron, but we are in the challenge that, if you know the lore, they begin to question the hierarchy of how their society has gotten stratified, and how the common man doesn't have the voice, entirely, that they want to have. We're following very true to the origin story of it, and so it's really fun, too, because I've gotten to see some of it – it's not fully executed by any stretch of the imagination, but hearing Optimus and Megatron not as who we know them as, which we see their maturation in this experience. So, in a sense, you're hearing a different character because you're hearing them before they have matured."

Until this movie, the only place you could really get an origin story for Autobots vs Decepticons (called the Great War) that has been central to the franchise is the IDW comics books. Even then, that origin is so spread out, told in bits and pieces over the years that is difficult to have a cohesive story. The origin was also restarted when IDW relaunched the comics franchise in 2019. I tried to write a summary but its pretty complicated. The very short version is the planet's Autobot leadership became corrupted by the upper class and through some events declared planetwide martial law. Orion Pax and Megatron worked together to eventually overthrow it as the abuses mounted. As a result of all the Autobot corruption he had to wade through (including killing two Primes), Megatron decided only he should lead the planet instead of Optimus Prime, who was anointed as leader by the true Matrix of Leadership. I suspect a movie version will cut through the complexity and focus on the rise of Megatron and reluctant leader Orion Pax who joins his cause against the corrupt government with difference in leadership styles and morality playing a huge part in how they eventually become enemies.

Update: Collider posted a little bit more of their interview with di Bonaventura where he revealed, "I'm not sure if I'm supposed to divulge it, but I'm going to. ILM is doing the animation." Industrial Light & Magic got its start on the Star Wars films and is more or less responsible for nearly every single visual effects breakthrough used in movies (including the previous Transformers films) so what they do with Transformers should be amazing. As far as quality, I believe the last animated film they did was Rango which they won an Oscar for.

Transformers Animated Movie Gets Potential Release Date

A tweet has indicated that Paramount has made further changes for their 2022 to 2024 release calendar moving several projects back due to COVID.  Part of the announcement however is apparently the plan to release "Untitled Transformers Animation" movie on July 19, 2024.  Transformers: Rise of the Beasts has not moved and still set for June 9, 2023. 

Paramount has not confirmed these changes. Even if the date is real, thanks to COVID likely continuing to be a problem at through 2022, there is a good chance most release dates could continue to change for many of their movies.  The animated movie has been rumored for last few years with the potential story focused on the origin of the Transformers' "Great War".  

Transformers Animated Movie Still In Works

A tweet from recently promoted Bobby Rubio shows that Paramount and Hasbro still plan on doing the Transformers Animated movie that has been planned for 3 or so years at least.  Even better, if you have the skills and can prove it with your online portfolio, you might even be able to join the team that animates the movie. The last rumor, that is several years old, is the movie would act as an origin story of the Transformers Great War. Really its a civil war but for public relations reasons Hasbro has always avoid that phrase.

My BIG ANNOUNCEMENT is I’ve been promoted to STORY SUPERVISOR & I’m reuniting with Director, Josh Cooley on an exciting animated movie! We are putting together a team and looking for talented artists! If interested submit portfolio links to animation_jobs@paramount.com
LET’S GO! pic.twitter.com/fVjDvUr4xw

— Bobby Alcid Rubio (@Bobby_Rubio) August 9, 2021

Hasbro Investor Day 2021 Reveals Two New Cartoons

Today was Hasbro Investor Day event where they announce their results from previous quarter while also providing some info on their future plans. On the Transformers front that includes 2 new cartoons series. Allspark has provided a nice summary of the entire event but here is the Transformers specific parts. If could sum up future plans for Transformers, it really comes out seeming like a whole lot of "Beast Wars" inspired content. 

Transformers 

- Feature film in partnership with Paramount slated for summer 2022. 

- New animated full-length feature film in development. 

- War for Cybertron: Kingdom to be released July 2021 on Netflix

- Transformers: BotBots, a new 20-episode animated comedy series at Netflix. 

- New 26-episode cartoon series on Nickelodeon.

The feature film refers to Transformers 7 that may or may not be called Transformers: Beast Alliance that will be directed Steven Caple Jr (Creed II) and could be a heist type film. The animated film has long been rumored to be an origin story of the Transformers civil war which has been touched on in War for Cybertron and sorta being told sorta in the current IDW reboot Transformers story. Considering how heavy War for Cybertron: Kingdom toy line is with Beast Wars characters, I assume its going to act as a kind of reintroduction of those characters, useful if the live action movie plans on using them too. 

 As for the Nickelodeon cartoon series, it sounds like its their plan to replace the Cyberverse line of toys. The series is being described as about found family but for Transformers' fans the key bit is "a new species of Transformers must find their place and purpose among Autobots, Decepticons, and the human family that adopts them". Again this sounds a whole lot like "Beast Wars" type characters since likely have to be human size or smaller and not part of the traditional 2 factions. 

 Portion of Nickelodeon Cartoon Press Release:

Nickelodeon, the number-one network for kids, and Hasbro’s Entertainment One (eOne) have partnered to co-produce an original animated Transformers series (26 half-hour episodes), based on the iconic global property. In the action-comedy series, a new species of Transformers must find their place and purpose among Autobots, Decepticons, and the human family that adopts them. The series will premiere exclusively on Nickelodeon in the U.S. before rolling out internationally.

“As soon as I read the creative concept, which at its core is about family, I knew we absolutely had to tell this story with our good friends at eOne and Hasbro,” said Ramsey Naito, President, Nickelodeon Animation. “The series will tell a reimagined story featuring both original characters and fan-favorites for a whole new generation of kids and families. The creative team at Nick, overseen by Claudia Spinelli, SVP of Animation Development, can’t wait to get started on building this new world.”

“We’re thrilled to be working with Nickelodeon to expand the Transformers animated universe and bring an all-new more than meets the eye story to life,” said Olivier Dumont, eOne’s President of Family Brands. “This new series is a fresh creative take on the brand, which will excite longtime fans around the world and soon to be fans alike, all being introduced to the robots in disguise by an A list creative team led by eOne’s Mikiel Houser .”

The all-new animated Transformers series is executive produced by Ant Ward (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and Nicole Dubuc (Transformers: Rescue Bots) and developed and co-executive produced by Dale Malinowski (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). Produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio, the series is developed for television by Spinelli and Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt, Senior Director, Current Series and Development, Animation. Production will be overseen for Nickelodeon by Conrad Montgomery, Vice President, Current Series, Animation and for eOne by Mikiel Houser, Director of TV Development.

Portion of Netflix BotBots Press Release:

● Netflix and Entertainment One (eOne), Hasbro’s entertainment studio, announce Transformers: BotBots, a new 20-episode animated comedy series following the mischievous little Transformers robots, otherwise known as BotBots.

● Kevin Burke and Chris “Doc” Wyatt (Spider-Man, Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy, Stretch Armstrong & the Flex Fighters) will serve as executive producers and showrunners.

● Logline: BotBots are Transformers robots that disguise themselves as everyday mall objects. By day, these BotBots hide quietly on store shelves but at night, they jump into adventure until a group of BotBots called ‘The Lost Bots’ run into the mall security guard and put all the bots in danger. Will these misfits be able to overcome their differences, defeat the security guard and gain acceptance in the eyes of the other bots?

● Olivier Dumont, eOne’s President of Family Brands: “We are delighted to partner with Netflix to bring an all-new Transformers story to life and explore a whole new universe with BotBots. Transformers storytelling has expanded into so many new avenues and we can’t wait to surprise both existing fans and new fans coming to the franchise for the first time with these fun bots who are definitely more than meets the eye!"

● The series takes inspiration from Hasbro’s popular Transformers: BotBots toy line, released in late 2018. BotBots are 1-inch collectible characters that can change from an ordinary object into a little robot in just 3-5 easy steps.

Writers, Director Hired for New Transformers Animated Movie

Hey, no time no read. But then been long time since actual movies news for Transformers. That has finally changed as Deadline reports that Hasbro's studio eOne along with Paramount are working on an animated movie. The movie will be based on a script from Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari (Ant-Man and the Wasp) with Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4) as director. No details on plot except "resolves around the relationship between Optimus Prime and Megatron." The film will not be part of any of the current live-action movies continuity, be it the Bay-verse or maybe/maybe part of Bay-verse Bumblebee movie. It does seem that maybe, just maybe, another one of those writer room concepts from years ago might be used.

It seems the sudden renewed interest in an animated movie is due to any live action film being years away and possibly more until Hollywood sorts out they will restart production considering most films involve hundreds of people working together and often without being able to follow social distance rules. An animated movie, for all its complexity, is sit down at a desk type work that can follow social distance rules or at least be outsourced overseas where how the rules are handled will not be considered a Hasbro/Paramount issue.

I wonder how much the IDW comics will come into play in developing the story. Wish I could remember the exact story arcs (I want to say the Autocracy Trilogy but not sure) got into the origin of then Orion Pax and Megatron's relationship. In the comics it started as friendship built on political agreement over the current government heavy handed leadership failing the people. Orion believed in using the system to fix things from within while Megatron was becoming increasingly more aggressive in believing how change need to be forced. The resulting fall out of Megatron's tactics severed the relationship and directly led to the "Great War" that eventually destroyed Cybertron and the Transformers landing on Earth. Another version of the story is being told in the IDW relaunch currently being published but exactly where its going is muddy on a good day so that seems less likely to be a source of inspiration for any movie. Whether they use IDW as inspiration or not, can't beat the potential drama of friends becoming bitter enemies on each side of a civil war that decimates a planet. Which isn't exactly kid friendly (and never forget the movies are about selling toys) so... yeah not holding my breath on that version being told but fingers crossed.

Transformers 5 and Transformers Animated Movie Get Writers

Deadline is reporting that the early results are in from the Transformers Writers room and the powers that be have decided that Akiva Goldsman will write the script for Transformers 5 while the Ant-Man writing team will take on an animated feature. The Transformers 5 script is being written on the assumption that Mark Wahlberg will star as Michael Bay as director but neither are actually signed up for TF5. As Bay tweeted, "Re: directing TF5. No, it's not official. I have not committed to any idea as of yet. Just met with Steven [Spielberg] and we are discussing." Previous interviews with Mark Walhberg indicated his interest in a sequel is highly dependent on Bay's involvement so if Bay returns, Mark returns. No Bay and Paramount is going to have to work harder to get Walhberg to return. Likely they are hoping that Akiva's script might be enough to get Bay to sign up again.