During the Transformers One panel at Comic-Con, a clip was shared that featured Starscream and it teased his story arc with Megatron. There’s definitely an interesting backstory there, but they pushed through it really quickly in the clip.
Anyway, this clip featured the first time we heard Starscream speak and his voice sounded very familiar! It was confirmed at the end of the clip that the fan-favorite villain is voiced by Steve Buscemi, which is pretty great casting!
The clip featured Chris Hemsworth’s Orion Pax, Brian Tyree Henry’s D-16, Keegan-Michael Key’s B-127 aka Bumblebee, and Scarlett Johansson’s Elita-1 being captured and taken to a group of hardcore legendary warriors known as the Cybertron High Guard.
Bee recognizes their leader is Starscream, but when Starscream orders the four characters to kneel to him, D-16 aka Megatron refuses. So, the two end up getting in their first fight with each other and D-16 pretty much kicks his ass and in the process damages Starscream’s voice.
The director of the film Josh Cooley said after the clip: “Do you guys know who that was? Steve Buscemi is the voice of Starscream. First choice. We call him up and he says yes… I’m a huge Big Lebowski fan so this was a dream come true.”
Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura talked about the film in general, saying: “The origin story is incredibly rich. If we tried to do this in live action, it would cost us $500 million… You’re really going to get to know the robots in a way that nothing has been able to do before.
“You know Optimus and Megatron so well but we’re dealing with Orion Pax and D-16. These guys are different but we still plant the seeds that get you to the characters you love.”
Cooley added: “It’s characters we know as enemies but seeing how they became enemies was fascinating to me. I’ve never seen this in any version of Transformers before.”
Henry also talked about the two main characters of the story and said that the way Orion Pax and D-16 go from friends to enemies is “heartbreaking.”
He continues: “Losing a friend is one of the worst heartbreaks — it’s worse than losing a lover. A friendship is absolute family. I still think about the friends I lost in the third grade… To see that these two iconic characters actually had a friendship and lost it, to see what that was, it is heartbreaking.”
Hemsworth went on to talk about taking on the role of Optimus Prime, and said: “What Peter Cullen has done with the character is so incredible, iconic, and the thing that is equally inspiring as also terrifying when trying to play the character.
“The goal was never to mimic or sound like Peter Cullen. This is the brash young version of Optimus Prime, before he had become the all-knowing omnipresent figure we have come to know and love.”
Transformers One rolls out in theaters on September 20th.
