‘Transformers One’ Trailer Launches the Autobots Into Space — Literally

Brian Welk
·2 min read
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Forget trailer debuts during football game halftimes or shown through “Fortnite,” the next frontier of debuting movie trailers is watching it on a screen that happens to be orbiting the Earth.

The first trailer for “Transformers One,” Paramount Animation and Hasbro’s animated “Transformers” origin movie, was screened inside a spacecraft that an hour ago launched from the Earth and traveled 125,000 feet into outer space. Paramount, via star Chris Hemsworth’s Instagram, did a livestream of the spacecraft launch followed by the first look at the trailer.

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Why do this? “The sky is the limit” for the film, Hemsworth said in announcing the stunt.

Okay, technically, we first all saw it on ground level at CinemaCon last week, 3-D glasses and all. “Transformers One” is the first animated “Transformers” movie in 40 years, and to inaugurate the 40-year anniversary of the Transformers brand, the film is an origin story for how Optimus Prime and Megatron went from being brothers and allies to sworn enemies. The film is set on the Transformers’ planet of Cybertron, and the trailer shows how the robots first acquire their transforming powers to become vehicles. It has madcap comedy and action that’s geared toward a younger audience but should also appeal to diehard Transformers fans.

Chris Hemsworth is the voice of Orion Pax, who later becomes Optimus, and Brian Tyree Henry is D-16, who later becomes Megatron. Scarlett Johansson (Elita-1) and Keegan-Michael Key (B-127) also co-star alongside Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm.

Josh Cooley, who wrote the screenplay for “Inside Out” and the story for “Toy Story 4,” is directing “Transformers One” from a script by Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari. Producing the film are Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Tom DeSanto & Don Murphy, Michael Bay, Mark Vahradian, and Aaron Dem, with Steven Spielberg, Zev Foreman, Olivier Dumont, Brian Oliver, B.J. Farmer, and Matt Quigg all serving as executive producers.

“Transformers One” was not the only film in the franchise teased at CinemaCon last week. Paramount and Hasbro also formally announced plans for a crossover film between the Transformers and G.I. Joe, which was hinted at in a post-credits scene for “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” last year.

“Transformers One” releases in theaters (on Earth) September 20, 2024. Watch the first trailer below:

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