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Chris Hemsworth got Comic-Con 2024 officially underway on Thursday (25 July) with the first major presentation of the week: Transformers One.
Hemsworth plays Optimus Prime in the animated film about the origins of the Autobot’s relationship with Megatron, who goes on to become the major antagonist of the franchise.
Marvel’s Thor star drew huge cheers as he appeared on stage with co-stars Brian Tyree Henry (who plays Megatron) and Keegan-Michael Key (who plays Bumblebee). Scarlett Johansson (who plays Alita) was unable to attend the panel as she is currently filming the next Jurassic World film.
Longtime Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4) debuted an exclusive new trailer for the film as well as three clips, each of which landed with aplomb among the excited San Diego audience.
One clip showed Orion Pax aka Optimus Prime (Chris Hemsworth) tricking his friend D-16 aka Megatron into entering a race, which Cooley described as “the Olympics of Cybertron.” “We’re seeing Cybertron when everything’s going great, we wanted to really show what the society looks like; what’s fun on this planet,” Cooley explained.
Bonaventura drew cheers early on when he confirmed that the film contained “no human characters.”
Hemsworth laughed but dodged a question about comparisons between Thor and Optimus Prime. The Australian actor instead chose to pay tribute to Peter Cullen who has voiced Prime since the original 1980s animated series.
“What Peter Cullen has done with the character is so incredible. Iconic,” Hemsworth said. “The thing that is inspiring is also terrifying.
“The goal was never to mimic or sound like Peter Cullen. This was the brash, young cocky version. It was before he had become the all-knowing, omnipresent figure that we’ve come to know and love.”
Clips from the panel event also revealed a number of other A-list voices in the movie. Jon Hamm voices Sentinel Prime; Laurence Fishburne plays Alpha Trion and Steve Buscemi voices a villainous character named Star Scream.
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Megatron’s transition from friend to foe was also teased in the footage. “It’s heartbreaking when they break up,” teased Cooley of Prime and his Decepticon counterpart.
Michael Bay directed the first five live-action Transformers movies: Transformers (2007), Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Dark of the Moon (2011), Age of Extinction (2014), and The Last Knight (2017), and has served as a producer for subsequent films. A sixth film Bumblebee, directed by Travis Knight, was released in 2018, while a seventh film, Rise of the Beasts, directed by Steven Caple Jr was released in 2023.
It is the 13th-highest-grossing film series of all time, with a total of $5.28bn.
Transformers One is out in theaters on September 20.
