8 Things You Need To See In The Transformers: The Last Knight Trailer

Those robots in disguise are back for Transformers: The Last Knight, the fifth movie in Michael Bay's live-action reboot series. Ahead of the film's release on June 23rd, 2017, the first teaser trailer has landed online and it gives us a good idea of what to expect. Interestingly, the preview goes against the grain by balancing out the action with some building up of a darker atmosphere and hinting at the wider world-building that's to come. With Anthony Hopkins providing the voiceover narration, it's fair to say the trailer has more gravitas than is usually associated with the Transformers franchise, which bodes well for the the movie as a whole. That said, we still get lots of Mark Wahlberg and company running away from explosions and robots repeatedly beating up other robots - you know, just so there's something for the diehard fans to enjoy. But buried in between all that are some intriguing hints of what's to come, and here are 8 of the most important takeaways for the trailer. 8) King Arthur And Nazis The trailer starts with something new, as it moves away from the contemporary setting of previous movies and takes a trip back in time. First up, things take a turn for the mythological as we see Dinobots flying over the glens of Scotland in Arthurian times. It's nice to see the Dinobots back, after they were underused in the last movie Age of Extinction, and mixing alien robots in with medieval fantasy should give a fresh twist to proceedings. The setting then moves along a few hundred years and we see an unseen force blow up a Nazi-occupied building, presumably during World War II. "It has been said through the ages: without sacrifice there can be no victory," recites Anthony Hopkins. "Two species at war. One flesh, one metal." Apparently, humans and Cybertronians have been fighting each other throughout time and we just never knew about it. This could open up some interesting new areas for the Transformers franchise to explore - after all, there are already plans for future spinoffs to be set in different historical periods. At the very least, it should mean that we get some cool actions sequences featuring Transformers taking on Medieval knights and Nazis. 7) Optimus Prime Is Lost Next up, the trailer clarifies that not all of the movie will be set in history and brings us back to soon after the events of Age of Extinction. "Optimus Prime has left us," Hopkins handily reminds the audience, as we see the dilapidated Autobot leader floating through space. At the end of the last movie, Optimus left Earth for a new mission to find the Creators - the god-like beings of the Transformers universe. Unfortunately, it doesn't look to be going too well for him. For one, he's drifting further and further away from our world, as we can see that he's already reached Saturn, and the absence of the lights of his eyes suggest he's not even operational. How did he get this way? And how will he be saved? Interestingly, the movie will introduce Hot Rod for the first time in this continuity. Usually, he becomes Optimus Prime's successor, Rodimus Prime, which does suggest that Optimus may not ever resume his place as the leader of the Autobots. We do, however, know that he'll make a return at some point in the film (more on that later). We're just not sure when. 6) Meet Sqweeks And Izabella The Last Knight will introduce a new human co-protagonist in Izabella, as played by teen actor Isabela Moner. While we're not yet sure how major her role will be, she easily got more to do in the trailer than Mark Wahlberg, even though we would expect him to still carry the film. Speaking to an unseen person, Izabella proclaims that she wants to stay and fight against the latest Cybertronian threat. In other words, she's one brave kid. It's easily missed but we also see a glimpse of another new Transformer that the movie will introduce. Izabella can be seen leaning affectionately against what looks to be a mechanical head, complete with headlight eyes and bright blue hands. Going by those clues, we can assume this is Sqweeks, a diminutive Autobot who is described as Izabella's only friend in the world. According to reports, he can transform into a Vespa scooter and only ever says the word "chihuahua" due to some system fault. Unusually for Transformers, Sqweeks is an actual physical prop as opposed to all the other CGI rendered Transformers. Apparently, Moner convinced Bay to make it for her so that she could have something tangible to act opposite. 5) Cade On The Run After taking over from Shia LaBoeuf in the fourth movie, Mark Wahlberg returns in The Last Knight as the memorably named Cade Yaeger, single father and struggling inventor. It would be easy to miss that fact in the trailer, however, as the actor hardly appears and certainly doesn't get any lines. Though to be fair, the humans have never been the stars of these films and everyone knows it. Wahlberg's first appearance in the trailer comes over a minute in, where we see Cade surrendering when cornered by a convoy of armed trucks. If you've been reading up on the film, you'll know that The Last Knight is set sometime after Age of Extinction and a task force has been set up to rid the world of Autobots and Decepticons alike. No, not Cemetery Wind, which was led by Kelsey Grammer in the last movie. This will be an all new one for some reason, headed up by The Musketeers' Santiago Cabrera. Cade has apparently been assisting the Autobots, which has left him a fugitive and cut off from his daughter. Clearly, though, he won't be on the run for the whole movie as we know the task force catch up with him at some point. 4) Origin Story As is usual for first trailers, this one doesn't give us a great deal of detail about the story of the movie - not that we really watch Transformers for the engrossing narratives, anyway. However, Anthony Hopkins' character does drop one juicy line in the trailer which goes someway to suggesting what The Last Knight will deliver. "One hundred million trillion planets in the cosmos," Hopkins says. "You want to know, don't you? Why they keep coming here..." Put this together with the shots of Dinobots in Arthurian times, and it looks like the movie will explore the origin story of the robots in disguise - and will presumably reveal that they're tied in with Earth. Producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura has explained a little bit about how the film will tackle this element of the mythos, saying the following: " were created, where did it start, where did they go from being a sort of a slave-race to a sentient race--we're delving into that aspect of the mythology, so the characters that are involved in there are Megatron before he's Megatron, Optimus before he's Optimus, the Librarian, the Quintessons, there's a whole group of things that have to do with how, in a sense, the Transformers were birthed, and also with how they were divided. What brought up the division, and what were the jealousies involved." 3) The Coming Of Unicron Alongside the fact that it might explore the Transformers' origins, one intriguing shot of the trailer also gives us another hint at the story as it pretty much confirms who the main villain of the movie will be. At one point, we see a ginormous planet-shaped Cybertronian about to chow down on the moon. Which is the second time the Transformers have had it in for Earth's satellite, after Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Why so obsessed with the Moon, guys? Planet-eating in the context of Transformers only leads to one name: Unicron, one of the most powerful enemies in Transformers lore. Also known as the Lord of Chaos or the Planet Eater, Unicron has the ability to transform into a mechanical planet. Basically, he's what would be created if you mixed Marvel's Galactus with the Death Star. In short, don't be fooled by his name almost spelling a fairytale horse - he means trouble. Given that, it seems certain that this is the movie version of Unicron we are seeing here. This would also fit in with what the production team have said about drawing more from the first generation of Transformers, as Unicron dates back to the original animated series. 2) Galvatron, Is That You? On the whole, The Last Knight is intended to be a new start to the franchise, a way to coax back viewers who have been turned away by the increasingly poor sequels. Even though it will mostly deal with fresh mythology, then, it will still carry over some characters from the last movie. In the trailer we see a human facing down a bulky silver Transformer with red eyes. We're not 100% sure, but this is most likely Galvatron. Any fan who's familiar with Age of Extinction will know that Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons, transferred his consciousness into the Galvatron drone in the previous movie. As he escaped to see another day at the end of that film though, it's perfectly possible for him to show up again here with a slight redesign. Though we didn't spot him in this trailer, Grimlock - the leader of the Dinobots - will return in The Last Knight. This is good news for those who were looking forward to seeing the race from the animated series turn up in the last movie... only for them to appear for about five minutes at the end. Let's hope they have a larger role this time. 1) Dark Optimus vs. Bumblebee The final reveal of the trailer is that Optimus Prime won't remain lost in space for the whole movie. But when he returns, he won't be the hero he was before. Instead, he'll turn against his allies - as seen in a shocking moment where he's battling Bumblebee - everyone's favourite Transformer. "Forgive me," says Optimus, as he prepares to land the final blow... While we know Bumblebee won't die in this movie - he has his own spinoff solo film coming up in 2018, after all - this is still an unexpected twist. It also raises lots of questions about why Optimus has turned to the dark side. Fans might be thinking that this is an evil clone of Optimus - maybe Nemesis Prime? However, if you look at the clues, it seems likely that this is indeed the one and only Optimus. Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that Optimus' eyes are no longer their usual blue in this scene and are instead purple. This brings to mind the power of the dark energon, a corrupting force that can turn even the nicest Autobot bad. Dark energon is also tied in with Unicron, which yet another sign that the Lord of Chaos is going to be a big player in Transformers: The Last Knight.