While actor Peter Cullen has been the iconic, commanding voice of Optimus Prime for nearly 40 years, a different actor is stepping into the tires of the Autobot for a new Transformers movie. Chris Hemsworth (Thor) will voice a young and, one can only assume, hunky Optimus Prime for Transformers One, a new animated movie that promises the origin story of the leaders of the Autobots and Decepticons, Paramount Animation announced Thursday.
Transformers One will also star Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) as young Megatron in a story about how the two most famous Transformers “went from brothers-in-arms to sworn enemies,” Paramount said. The story of Optimus Prime and Megatron’s youth was previously explored in comic publisher IDW’s Transformers series (pictured above), but the animated feature film will likely take its own approach to young Optimus, back when he was known as Orion Pax.
Joining Hemsworth and Henry in the animated film’s cast are Scarlett Johansson as Elita (aka Elita One, Optimus’ Autobot leader stand-in while he was away from Cybertron for a few million years); Keegan-Michael Key as Bumblebee; Jon Hamm as Sentinel Prime, the leader of the Autobots before Optimus took over; and Laurence Fishburne as Alpha Trion, one of the oldest, wisest Transformers.
Josh Cooley, the former Pixar artist and screenwriter who directed Toy Story 4, is helming Transformers One. Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari, who co-wrote Ant-Man and the Wasp and Hulu’s No Exit, penned the script.
Transformers One hits movie theaters on July 19, 2024.
