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Transformers One is a 2024 American animated science fiction action film based on Hasbro's Transformers toy line. It was directed by Josh Cooley from a screenplay by Eric Pearson, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari, the latter two of whom also conceived the film's story. The film features the voices of Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm. It is set on Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers, and depicts the origins and early relationship of Optimus Prime and Megatron.
In March 2015, following the release of (2014), Paramount Pictures tasked Akiva Goldsman to set up a writers' room to create ideas for potential future Transformers films. By May 2015, Barrer and Ferrari had signed on as writers, and they came up with the idea of an animated prequel set on Cybertron. The film was announced in August 2017, and by April 2020, Cooley had been hired to direct. Animation services were provided by Industrial Light & Magic, and the design was primarily influenced by the era and Art Deco. The score was composed by Brian Tyler.
Transformers One premiered in Sydney, Australia, on September 11, 2024, and was released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on September 20. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised the story, animation, screenplay, voice performances, action sequences, score, and humor. However, it Box-office bomb, grossing only $129.4 million worldwide on a budget of $75–147 million.
Iacon's leader, Sentinel Prime, returns from an expedition to the surface to find the lost Matrix of Leadership, the absence of which has caused Energon to stop flowing and forced the miners to extract it. Though unable to find it, he reprieves the population with a race. To prove themselves as more than just miners, Orion enters himself and D-16 illegally using jet packs, but they narrowly lose. While Sentinel promises to reward them for boosting mining morale, an enraged Darkwing drags the two to garbage incineration for sabotaging him in the race, where they meet the eccentric B-127. Finding a distress message from the Prime Alpha Trion in the garbage, Orion convinces D-16 and B-127 to travel with him to the message's coordinates on the surface; also persuading Elita to join when she catches them sneaking out of Iacon.
The group finds Alpha Trion inside a cave, in stasis alongside the other Primes' corpses. Upon reactivation, he reveals that Sentinel is a pretender who betrayed the real Primes to steal the Matrix, only for it to disappear when Primus deemed him unworthy. In truth, Sentinel has been giving Energon to alien invaders called Quintessons in exchange for them letting him rule Cybertron, and he created the current hierarchy by removing some Cybertronians' cogs before activation. Alpha Trion gives the group the fallen Primes' cogs—allowing them to transform—and a chip with evidence of Sentinel's treason. They are then ambushed by Sentinel's lieutenant, Airachnid, who captures Trion and brings him back to Iacon, where Sentinel executes him.
Evading pursuit, the group travels back to Iacon but is captured by the Primes' former army, the Cybertronian High Guard, who are rebelling against Sentinel in secret. While D-16 takes command of them by defeating their leader, Starscream, Orion grows concerned over his aggression since learning the truth. Sentinel's troops find them, and in the ensuing battle, the evidence chip is destroyed while D-16, B-127, and Starscream are captured along with most of the High Guard. Taken to Iacon, D-16 learns that Sentinel stole the cog of his idol, Megatronus Prime, whose face his captors mockingly brand onto him.
Encouraged by Elita, Orion rallies remaining High Guard members Soundwave and Shockwave before returning to Iacon to rescue their comrades. After subduing Darkwing, Orion enlists the miners' aid to assault Sentinel's headquarters, freeing the captives. As the High Guard battles Sentinel's forces, Orion, Elita, and B-127 expose the truth by capturing Airachnid and broadcasting her memory recordings throughout the city. D-16 defeats Sentinel but gets into an argument with Orion over whether to kill him, resulting in D-16 accidentally shooting Orion before deliberately letting him fall to his death. D-16 then kills Sentinel, takes Megatronus' cog, renames himself Megatron, and leads the High Guard into a full-scale riot.
Deeming Orion worthy, Primus and the Primes' spirits bestow him with the Matrix and revive him as Optimus Prime, who defeats Megatron and exiles him and the High Guard from Iacon. The Matrix then makes Energon flow again and restores the miners' cogs. Afterward, Optimus becomes Iacon's new leader, christens his followers as , and sends a warning message for the Quintessons to stay away from Cybertron from now on. Meanwhile, a vengeful Megatron reforms the High Guard into the , using Megatronus' face as their insignia, and declares war on the Autobots.
In August 2017, it was reported that an animated Transformers film was officially in the works. Following the release of Bumblebee (2018), di Bonaventura discussed the animated film, clarifying that it was "in the works" and would "tell the whole Cybertron mythology". Bumblebee director Travis Knight additionally expressed interest in the film.
In April 2020, it was reported that former Pixar animator and filmmaker Josh Cooley had been hired to direct the film and was overseeing the script by Barrer and Ferrari. Hasbro Entertainment and Paramount Animation would produce the film. In February 2022, it emerged that the film would be computer-animated. In December 2022, the title was reported to be Transformers: A New Generation, though di Bonaventura later stated in April 2023 that the title had yet to be finalized. Later that month, at CinemaCon, the title was officially confirmed as Transformers One. di Bonaventura stated that the plot will center around the Origin story of the Transformers, and explore the events that lead Optimus and Megatron to go from being brothers-in-arms to becoming enemies. The budget was reportedly $75 million, although an Animation Magazine interview with Cooley and di Bonaventura put the cost of production as high as $147 million.
The relationship between Optimus Prime and Megatron and the tragedy of their falling out is the emotional core of the film. For Cooley, it was important to show that Megatron was not just a villain. He wanted people who did not know Transformers to come into the film and not be able to immediately pick up who was going to be good or bad. He took inspiration from several famous brothers-turned-enemies stories from across pop culture when crafting the story arc. As a reference to his previous origin story, the film originally included a scene depicting Megatron as a gladiator, to have him and Optimus Prime come from completely different backgrounds. Due to runtime constraints, that idea was scrapped and they were both made to be coworkers in the mines instead.
Transformers One was Hemsworth's first animated feature film. He joined the project after being impressed with the screenplay. Hemsworth made efforts to not use his regular speaking voice for Optimus Prime. Many of Hemsworth's lines in the film were "riff offs" from what the filmmakers wrote, bringing his charisma and comedy to them. From a fan's point of view, di Bonaventura felt important to respect longtime Optimus Prime actor Peter Cullen's performance while not bringing him back to ensure the audience felt Prime's youth, leading to Hemsworth's casting, who surprised di Bonaventura with his "very strong sense of story".
Cooley's desire to harken back to the chattier version of Bumblebee seen in other Transformers media influenced Key's casting, who he had worked with before when directing Pixar's Toy Story 4 (2019). Cooley requested that Key stay close to his regular speaking voice for Bumblebee. Johansson was approached to voice Elita by Hemsworth, who texted her upon joining the project himself. The two had previously worked together in several Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films.
Around before the film's release in August 2024, more additional cast members were announced for the film which included voice actor and longtime fan Jon Bailey reprising his role as Soundwave from Bumblebee (2018) and Isaac C. Singleton Jr., who previously voiced Soundwave in several Transformers video games developed by High Moon Studios as Darkwing.
The designs of the Transformers were heavily influenced by those of . Cooley said, "They're really clear and have these great silhouettes. It was important to hit that." The team began by looking at the work of original Transformers character designer, Floro Dery. Art Deco was a big influence on the film's production and character design, with Cooley describing the style as being all about post-depression. He felt it to be relevant to the film as it takes place before the planet of Cybertron falls apart and while things are still going well. In order to make the Transformers feel more human and for the audiences to better connect, the team at ILM was instructed to make them more emotive with their faces and character animation. Measures applied to ensure this included making sure their faces were not covered all of the time and making their eyes more expressive. Cooley felt a grand sense of scale was essential to the Transformers brand. As there are no humans in the film to use as a scale reference, the team looked to Cybertron instead and aimed to make it feel larger than life.
In the United States and Canada, Transformers One was released alongside The Substance and Never Let Go, and was projected to gross $30–40 million from 3,978 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $9.6 million on its first day, including $3.4 million from Wednesday and Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $24.6 million, finishing second behind holdover Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. The opening weekend gross was deemed disappointing, but there was optimism that the film would do well over time. In its second weekend, the film had a 62.8% drop, making only $9.1 million and finishing in third. This was attributed to the lack of marketing and interest from families, as well as facing competition from The Wild Robot, which took over in premium format screens.
Internationally, the film was released on dates ranging from September 11, 2024 (in Indonesia), to October 24, 2024 (in Israel). In the United Kingdom and Ireland region, where it released on October 11, 2024, the film opened to Pound sterling1.6 million, ranking it above DC Comics holdover .
Audiences polled by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by [[PostTrak]] gave it an average five out of five stars, with 75% saying they would definitely recommend it.
Todd Gilchrist of Variety praised the film's direction, animation, and screenplay. He felt the film boasted a level of complexity and described it as "the most sophisticated onscreen portrait" of the Transformers to date. G. Allen Johnson of the San Francisco Chronicle compared the film favorably to the live-action installments, applauding its screenplay, visuals, and resonant themes, and describing it as unapologetically made for "the inner child." Carlos Aguilar of the Los Angeles Times opined that the film benefitted from the quality standard set by prior Transformers films, but still commended it for its screenplay, themes, humor, animation, and emotional core. Adam Graham of The Detroit News awarded the film a B− rating, praising the animation, direction, screenplay, and humor, and comparing it favorably to the live-action installments.
Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter praised the film for its direction, animation, screenplay, and emotional core and felt it to have revitalized the Transformers franchise. Leigh Monson of The A.V. Club awarded the film a B− rating. They commended the story, animation, and voice performances, though felt the film to be predictable and unambitious. Randy Myers of The Mercury News gave the film a 3 out of 4 rating and referred to it as the best of the Paramount Transformers films. They lauded the humor, voice performances, and animation.
Tom Jorgensen of IGN rated the film 5 out of 10, praising the voice cast and Brian Tyree Henry's performance, as well as the story of Orion Pax and . Overall he felt the film was underwhelming and was critical of it for being surface-level and featuring illegible action scenes. Soren Andersen of The Seattle Times gave the film a 2 out of 4 star rating. He commended Keegan-Michael Key's performance but felt the film to be overall an exhausting experience due to an overabundance of action scenes. Wilson Chapman of IndieWire gave the film a C grade and said: "It's all executed competently but joylessly, with zero fun to be had as it labors across an hour and 40 minute runtime that feels both too short and painfully long."
| Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature | Alex Popescu, Geoffrey Lebreton, Ryan Kirby, Hussein Nabeel (for "Iacon City") | |
On November 20, 2024, following the film's underperformance, Hasbro announced that they would be no longer co-financing film adaptations based on their properties, instead leaving external studios to exclusively fund such projects. The following month, Tyree Henry expressed hopes of a sequel being officially confirmed. During a BotCon panel in June 2025, Cooley stated that Paramount is not interested in producing a sequel, although he asserted, "We'll see what happens. You never know." A week later, it was reported that Cooley would return to direct an installment in the live-action film series.
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