The Transformers franchise may be over a decade old now, but all signs are pointing to the upcoming Bumblebee film to be a big refresh for the series, both in terms of quality and box office. Fans have been eagerly anticipating this retro-flavored Transformers movie, but one mystery puzzling fans is who will actually voice the title character? While the Bumblebee character didn’t have a true voice in the previous films, the filmmakers had stated before that for this prequel, he would definitely have one. And according to IGN, the voice actor is none other than The Maze Runner star Dylan O’Brien.
Of course, some of you may be wondering why Bumblebee even has a distinct voice in this film, when the previous Transformers movies show him without a real voice of his own, but the film’s producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura had this to say: “We really are resetting the mythology, essentially, of who Bumblebee is. And so, that seemed to us to be appropriate, to get the chance to hear what he sounds like.” As to why Dylan O’Brien got the gig, according to the filmmakers, “Dylan has that great quality in his voice of youthful exuberance, and also sort of trustworthiness. I think those are the two qualities that we wanted Bumblebee to have.”
With this latest Transformers movie taking place twenty years before the first one, it looks like director Travis Knight is bringing the feel of the original era of the toys and cartoons into the franchises for the first time, even using designs that evoke the original Generation One 1984 versions of the characters. So we say, make as many changes to the mythology that you need to to make this a good film, and if the continuity doesn’t line up with later films, just deal with it all later. Just make a good movie.
Bumblebee hits theaters on December 21.
Images: ParamountÂ
