Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, and Director Josh Cooley Talk Origins, The Spark, and Transformers Bible For Transformers One

Autobots, roll out! 

The highly anticipated animated film Transformers One has fans waiting for the untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron and how they went from brothers to enemies. Director Josh Cooley and cast members Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry sat down at a press conference to talk about what viewers can expect from Transformers One. 

From the comics to live-action films, Transformers has generated a huge fan base over the years that people continue to rave about. Henry, Hemsworth, and Cooley revel in the “newness” and nostalgia of this project. “We’re going on 40 some odd years with Transformers and I immediately just thought about my younger self on Saturday morning, at the crack of dawn, getting a sugary cereal, sitting as close to the television as I possibly could, watching this 4 to 5 hour block that included the Transformers,” Henry shared. “Then going outside in my neighborhood and playing with the toys from the cartoons Transformers has always been a part of the fabric of my youth and my life.”

Henry continued. “What’s really cool with what Josh has done with this one is going back to the origin. It’s a fresh take. It’s something that I’ve always wondered about. But also to see the new generations getting this opportunity to see this side of the Transformers,” he said. “It’s all about that kind of reinvigoration of that spark of our youth. Just seeing the ownership of these characters in their lives in this world reaching a new generation is most exciting.” 

Hemsworth added on his excitement for the project as it tapped into a new story. “This is all wonderful fun character stuff that we had an opportunity to dig into. We weren’t mimicking something that has been done before,” he said. “This was a creation of our own and collaboration, which I was really excited about and so thankful for what was on the page and also with Josh at the helm.” Cooley was excited to play against the preconceived notions of these characters to offer a compelling, youthful story on how their brotherhood turned into spitefulness.

With a background working for Pixar, Cooley explained the unique challenge of bringing the robots to life and the thought process behind the design. “Both Toy Story and Transformers are all about scale,” he said. “So, it was actually really interesting not having humans in it so you kind of have to force yourself to create a scale that everything’s based on.”

Further, Cooley drew inspiration from the original 80s cartoon often referred to as the Generation One version in his design for the film. “I knew I wanted to start there and do something that was similar to my childhood and, you know, that’s the Optimus Prime and Megatron that everybody knows,” he stated. “This is actually the first time that a story has been done where they were younger and didn’t have a cog in their body. Just to start a Transformer movie where the characters don’t transform, I thought was fascinating. We had to work backwards and go like, ‘What’s the ultimate Optimus Prime and Megatron and what would they look like when they’re growing up?’ They purposely have a cog missing so I wanted to make sure, whatever camera angle, you constantly saw they were missing something just visually.” 

Transformers has racked up quite a long history and is encompassed in a ‘bible’ of sorts that Cooley gained access to while working on the film. “I had no idea how deep the lore went. Most of the stories are when they come to Earth, that's what a lot of the cartoon series and movies are about,” he said. “But there’s like billions and billions of years before and after that so I had no idea there was this token length lore that's been created over the years. When they handed that to me, I was like making sure they were clear that this wasn’t all going to fit in a 90 minute movie and they were like, ‘Yeah, no, we get it’ so we just made sure just to pick a few bits and pieces to tell a story.”

Henry took a moment to speak on his favorite Transformer, the addition of female heroes, and its importance in the film. “Back in the 80s our cartoons were very much geared like ‘this is what boys watch’ and ‘this is what girls watch,’ never the two shall meet. Transformers was a universe that was kinda like that unfortunately,” he said. “What I like a lot about our movie is that you get to see all these different transformers living together and you get to see more female transformers. It's just a race of transformers trying to figure out what they are, but what I love about Elita-1 is that she’s a leader and she needs to be respected. She actually is the common sense of the movie. She really stood out to me and she could get all of us together, and never once questioned her loyalty, never once questioned her leadership. She was like, ‘This is who I am.’

In the franchise, there’s an important theme of “the spark” which gives life and hope. The cast took some time to reflect on what “the spark” means to them. “I like the idea of forging your own path and not believing that everything is preordained and set out before you. The idea that you do have some influence,” Hemsworth explained. “Sure, the universe has to align in certain ways, and the opportunities have to present themselves, but taking ownership and choosing what it is that you believe in, listening to your heart, your inner calling, a virtue following that. It resonates throughout this film very heavily and that’s always been something that I live my life by.” 

A beautiful moment comes from Henry’s take on “the spark” as he explains the film is riddled with metaphors similar to his coming-of-age journey and what it means in the present moment. “The concept of identity, the concept of friendship, the concept of what’s right and what’s wrong,” he said. “I often think about that moment where you see the metaphor of the light going out of Megatron’s eyes and then, all of a sudden, it’s replaced with this new light or watching them be cogless and just being one thing and then getting this spark that then allows them to transform into something greater like the metaphors are all over the place.”

“It’s a story and a lesson that stands the test of time because, even to this day as men sitting before you, we’re still trying to figure out parts of who we are and what’s informing those things that we stand up for, what we don’t believe in, and we pass that along to the generations after us,” continued Henry. “I love the concept of origin, like what that means [and] where the beginning is ‘cause the beginning isn’t just the beginning. There’s so many different beginnings that we go through in our life if we’re lucky. So this concept of the spark, this light that we find within us that can be shared or we try to harness it for ourselves, like what that means it’s all about humanity in the end. Honestly, even if it’s robots, there’s still a concept of heart and I think that’s what the spark represents the most.”

Transformers One is out now in theaters.