TRANSFORMERS ONE Producer Explains Why Chris Hemsworth Is Replacing Peter Cullen As Optimus Prime

TRANSFORMERS ONE Producer Explains Why Chris Hemsworth Is Replacing Peter Cullen As Optimus Prime

Thor actor Chris Hemsworth will lend his voice to Optimus Prime in the Transformers One animated series, and the movie's producer now explains what led to him replacing Peter Cullen as the iconic Autobot.

By JoshWilding - Jun 08, 2023 07:06 AM EST
Filed Under: Movies
Source: Collider

Transformers One will explore the epic rivalry between the Autobots and the Decepticons, with Thor: Love and Thunder star Chris Hemsworth tapped to play Optimus Prime. Eternals' Brian Tyree Henry, meanwhile, will lend his voice to the young Megatron in a story that promises to reveal how they went from friends to enemies. 

Similar to how The Super Mario Bros. Movie swapped out longtime voice actors for big name stars, Transformers One will also feature Hollywood A-Listers Scarlett Johansson as Elita, Keegan-Michael Key as Bumblebee, Jon Hamm as Sentinel Prime, and Laurence Fishburne as Alpha Trion.

Longtime Transformers franchise producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura recently spoke to Collider about what fans can expect from the animated movie, promising that "Everything I'm seeing is working and it's exceeding my sense of what it was gonna be."

"It is a very fresh and different look," he said of the animated style. "I would say different than any animated movie you've seen, which is a high bar to set, but ILM is capable of delivering it."

The decision to replace longtime Transformers actors with big stars has caused a certain level of uneasiness among fans, but di Bonaventura had nothing but good things to say about Hemsworth's approach to playing Optimus Prime. It also sounds like there will be a logical connection between his performance and Peter Cullen's.

"When we first listen to Chris Hemsworth's voice, you're like, 'God, is he gonna be a good Optimus!'" the producer exclaimed. "Obviously, he starts as Orion Pax and you don't become Optimus for a while, so he's not playing, for most of the movie, what we think of as Optimus, Peter Cullen."

"So it's that transition, and Chris's voice has a timbre that...it’s logical that Peter Cullen would take over that voice, if you would, which is really great, the fans are gonna really feel great."

"But Scarlett [Johansson] is amazing," di Bonaventura adds, "and it's just coming alive in a way that it's really rewarding, and we had confidence in our director, and all he's doing is giving us more and more."

That actually sounds pretty perfect to us, and this should help ease a lot of minds.

Toy Story 4's Josh Cooley is directing the film from a screenplay by Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari. Legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg is executive producing Transformers One alongside Brian Goldner, Brian Oliver, Bradley J. Fischer, and Valerii An. 

Transformers One is set to be released in theaters on September 13, 2024.

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