Autobots, rollout!
There’s an ’80s-set Transformers spinoff coming down the pipeline, and it’s looking to place the focus squarely on Bumblebee, the mute Autobot with a large heart and an even larger playlist of all your favorite tunes.
It’s the means through which Bumblebee communicates with his human allies – Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), in this case, who finds an old VW Beetle in dire need of some repairs. And that’s where Travis Knight’s origin tale truly kicks into high gear. It’s also what this new promo for the spinoff focuses on, with a short little clip making its way onto the web today that sees Charlie and the Transformer sharing a rather humorous moment.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much fresh footage in this latest preview, but it’s still a nice reminder of what’s to come from the new direction of the franchise. After the underwhelming box office performance of Transformers: The Last Knight, Paramount and the Powers That Be decided to shuffle the deck behind the scenes as they charted a new course for the property. And it all begins with the release of Bumblebee.
Also starring Pamela Adlon, Kenneth Choi, Megan Pryce, and Martin Short, the film’s official logline reads as so:
On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug.
Bumblebee rolls into theaters on December 21st and shares its US premiere date with James Wan’s Aquaman. The former will also herald a soft reboot of the Transformers franchise, one that’s being piloted by someone other than Michael Bay – which is certainly a good thing, wouldn’t you say?