Chris Hemsworth rolls out as Optimus Prime for animated origin story Transformers One
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Chris Hemsworth voices Optimus Prime in Transformers One.
PHOTO: UIP
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SAN DIEGO – Like many who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, Chris Hemsworth was a big fan of the Transformers toys and animated series.
So, there was a lot of nostalgia for the Australian actor when he lent his voice to the new Transformers One animated movie.
Opening in Singapore cinemas on Sept 12, it serves as an origin story for the popular Transformers media franchise (1984 to present), which revolves around sentient robotic beings from the planet Cybertron.
The first fully computer-animated film in the franchise – which includes seven live-action movies from 2007 to 2023, and more than a dozen American and Japanese animated television series – its voice cast also includes Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson and Keegan-Michael Key.
The story explores the early friendship between two of the main characters, Optimus Prime (Hemsworth) and Megatron (Henry), and the events that led to their rivalry.
This sets the stage for the disastrous war that divides their planet and sends two factions – the heroic Autobots led by Optimus Prime and the villainous Decepticons led by Megatron – fleeing to Earth centuries later.
Speaking at the Transformers One panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, earlier in 2024, Hemsworth, 41, says he loved Transformers as a child, when he would play with the popular Hasbro action figures that launched the franchise in 1984.
“I had a few of the action figures as a kid, and like most of us who have some sort of attachment to Transformers, I played with them and created stories and little adventures with them in the backyard,” says the star of Marvel’s Thor (2011 to 2022) and Avengers (2012 to 2019) superhero films.
“The nostalgia around it was something that I still hold so dear to my heart, and I have such fond memories of what the films and cartoons inspired.
“And what the stories represented and instilled about hope, justice, injustice, right and wrong – all the subtle lessons that you’re picking up as a kid,” adds Hemsworth, who is married to Spanish actress Elsa Pataky, 48, with whom he has three children aged 10 to 12.
“The sheer escapism and fantasy of it at any age is what is so brilliant about the world of Transformers, and it’s an honour to be a part of it.”
His co-star Henry also had a childhood fascination with this universe, but found himself drawn to the darker characters.
American actor Brian Tyree Henry (left) and Australian actor Chris Hemsworth at Paramount’s animation panel for Transformers One during Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 25.
PHOTO: AFP
“I was a fan of this very underrated Transformer named Ratchet, who was very curmudgeonly and mean, but was the one I was the most fascinated by,” says the 42-year-old American actor, who was Oscar-nominated for the drama Causeway (2022) and Emmy-nominated for the comedy drama Atlanta (2016 to 2022).
“And for some reason when I was younger, my parents got me only villain toys.
“I had toys like Megatron, and I would always make them the hero because I always feel like villains don’t always start that way – something happens and they follow their righteousness to this place.
“So being able to actually be Megatron is like a dream come true,” says Henry, who also portrayed Phastos in the Marvel film Eternals (2021).
Chris Hemsworth as Optimus Prime (left) and Brian Tyree Henry as Megatron in Transformers One.
PHOTO: UIP
The hope is that this prequel story will introduce the franchise to a new generation of fans.
The franchise’s only other animated theatrical film, 1986’s Transformers: The Movie, also featured an all-star voice cast, including the late actor Leonard Nimoy and film-maker Orson Welles.
And telling the origin story through animation allowed the film-makers to set their imaginations free.
Transformers One’s American executive producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura produced all the live-action Transformers movies, including the first one in 2007, which starred Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox and revived interest in the franchise.
“The origin story is incredibly rich and it’s something that we thought about for a very long time.
“If we tried to do this with live action, it would probably cost US$500 million, so we were forced into animation,” the 67-year-old explains, although he does not reveal the budget of the new film.
But speaking “as somebody who’s worked on every one of the movies, the result is so spectacular”, he says.
Transformers One opens in Singapore cinemas on Sept 12.
