Alleged ‘Transformers One’ Leak Claims Film Will Reveal How Transformers Obtain The Ability To Transform

John F. Trent |

Oct 19, 2023

An alleged leak for the upcoming Transformers One animated film from the China Licensing Expo claims to reveal that the film will reveal how the Transformers obtain the ability to transform.

Transformers One was originated back in 2015 with Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr. reporting that Paramount Pictures and Michael Bay created a Transformers writing room featuring Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari to cook up new Trasnformers ideas.

At the time of the reporting, one of the ideas was Transformers One, which Fleming Jr. described as “more or less an origins story that takes place on Cybertron, the planet where the good-guy and bad-guy robots hail from.”

Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura would provide further details about the film in an interview with Collider back in April while promoting Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.

He relayed, “This is something we were trying to do; we debated a lot about it in live action, and it just was financially impossible to do, which is, the origin story of young Megatron and young Optimus. If you know the origin, they started as friends, and over time things devolved for them and they ended up on two sides. So we’re telling the young Optimus and the young Megatron story. We really are telling the origin story of all Transformers, both what they were at the beginning of it, to how they grow, to how they grow apart.”

di Bonaventura went on to share that he hopes the film spawns a trilogy, “We’re hoping that there is enough emotional construct to that, that would lead to a trilogy of it because, personally, I think there’s a natural trilogy. I’m not always looking to do multiple movies, but there’s a natural trilogy around their relationship.”

“So, you’re going to see Cybertron in a way you’ve never seen it, that no one’s ever seen it before,” he relayed. “Because we’re doing an animation, we’re allowed to really go all out. If you tried to make this live-action, it would probably be a billion-dollar movie or something.”

The producer then shared even more details, “You’re going to see a lot of the origins of the society, and what broke it apart. The analogy for me is a bit like Krypton when you saw the planet falling apart, and all that. We’re not there for a short time, we’re there the entire time of the movie, we’re on Cybertron, but we are in the challenge that, if you know the lore, they begin to question the hierarchy of how their society has gotten stratified, and how the common man doesn’t have the voice, entirely, that they want to have.”

He then declared, “We’re following very true to the origin story of it, and so it’s really fun, too, because I’ve gotten to see some of it – it’s not fully executed by any stretch of the imagination, but hearing Optimus and Megatron not as who we know them as, which we see their maturation in this experience. So, in a sense, you’re hearing a different character because you’re hearing them before they have matured.”

Megatron (Fred Tatasciore) sends an emergency message to the Autobots in Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (2012), Activision

He then went on to reiterate the main theme about the movie is Megatron and Optimus questioning their society, “It’s not a coming-of-age story. I don’t think you’d believe that, in a way, but I would say they’re young men who are finding their path. Like I said, it’s more than a tease, that’s what the story is, and that’s the experience you’re going to go through. And how they question society, just like all of us, too, could question our society.”

“We’re maybe not as strong as Megatron and Optimus, so maybe we wouldn’t make the same choices, but I think it’s really going to be an eye-opener for the fans. For the non-fans, you’re going to get to meet the characters in their early formation,” he asserted.

Now, a new leak from an alleged attendee to the China Licensing Expo shared to the Chinese social media site Baidu that the film will show how the Transformers obtain their ability to transform.

As roughly translated by a user on Seibertron, the Baidu user wrote, “n the afternoon of the 16th, I attended the [China Licensing Expo]. I was fortunate to see some news about next year’s animated blockbuster movie, ‘Transformers One’. The key highlight was the release of a teaser, which couldn’t be recorded on the spot. From memory, I sketched the appearances of the two main characters. However, please note that these sketches are based solely on my recollection, and the actual appearance might differ, so I recommend waiting for the teaser.”

“It seems that the details of the movie are still being kept under wraps. According to the people from [the expo], they only received the teaser yesterday,” the user continued. “The plot is expected to revolve around the love, hate, and rivalry between Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee, and Elita, as well as their journey to obtaining the Transformation Cog. Initially, they have a hollow space in their chests, as depicted in my drawings. After acquiring the Transformation Cog, their chest designs will change. In the middle to later stages, they gain the ability to transform, and their initial incomplete forms appear in various humorous and bizarre shapes. They can transform into vehicles like trucks, tanks, sports cars, and motorcycles.”

You can see the illustrations via That Park Place YouTube below:

The user went on to reveal a number of other characters that will be featured in the film, “Characters such as Shockwave, Soundwave, and Starscream are also introduced, but at that time, they are not yet enemies. Everything appears to be reminiscent of the beginning of a dream. The movie is produced by Industrial Light & Magic, the studio responsible for Transformers 1-5, so the quality should be good.”

“The overall character designs are more rounded compared to the previous posters, and it might take some getting used to for everyone. I’ve never seen character designs quite like these, so they are somewhat unique. For example, Alpha Trion (translation not clear) appears to be more elemental, like a mix of stone and vegetation, which is very different from the usual Cybertronian designs. Sentinel (translation not clear) is blue, and I don’t have a clear impression of other characters,” the user concluded.