Transformers One director Josh Cooley has revealed the lesson he learnt from the classic 1986 film, The Transformers: The Movie.
The new animation, which arrives in UK cinemas next month, serves as the untold origin story of Optimus Prime/Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and Megatron/D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) as they go from brothers-in-arms to sworn enemies.
Speaking to Digital Spy at the film's UK premiere last night (September 19), he explained that he wanted the blockbuster to live up to the franchise's "epic" first movie.
"I grew up watching the original cartoon on Saturday morning with cereal, and I went and saw [the] '86 movie in the theatre," Cooley said.
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"It was a friend's 7th birthday party, and it traumatised all of us. So I decided for this movie two things; 1) I love how epic that movie is and I want to bring that to this, and 2) I don't want to traumatise anybody."
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The director went on to explain why the Transformers still appeal to viewers and opened up about his decision not to make Megatron a villain early on in the film.
"The obvious [appeal] is they're huge robots that punch each other, which is pretty cool, and turn into vehicles," he said.
"But there's something about the good versus evil, Optimus Prime being about courage and honour, that people really respond to."
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Cooley continued: "I wanted people who came to this movie for the first time, who don't know Transformers, to not know [Megatron] becomes a villain. I wanted to sell them as friends right away, so that when they break up you really feel it."
In addition to the two lead stars, Transformers One also features the voices of Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm, Laurence Fishburne, and Steve Buscemi.
The film has already been a hit with critics, landing an impressive 88% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes from 100 reviews, at the time of writing.
Transformers One is out now in US cinemas and is released in UK cinemas on October 11.
Sara is an entertainment journalist who specialises in TV and film. After studying journalism at the University of Roehampton, Sara joined Digital Spy in 2023, writing news (and the occasional feature) on all things entertainment. She has also written for the culture desk at The Evening Standard. A lover of all things TV and film, Sara can wax lyrical about everything from Bridgerton to The Witcher. She can also recite entire episodes of New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Parks and Recreation. In her spare time, Sara loves to knit, crochet and cross-stitch. Also a musical theatre aficionado, Sara counts Samantha Barks as one of her heroes and is a loyal fan of Jodie Comer.
Ali is Hearst UK's deputy social strategy director. He has been covering TV and movies for more than six years, all while wrangling Digital Spy's social media and video channels - for which he received a PPA 30 Under 30 award. He specializes in writing about anime, LGBTQ+ representation, science fiction, and comic book adaptations. Recently he's begun collecting Star Wars interviews like Infinity Stones and has spoken with The Mandalorian's Pedro Pascal, Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy and the creative team behind The Bad Batch. Dave Filoni, you're next.
