Bumblebee is driving its way to us, pulling into the cine-garage this month. And though this has yet to be shown in the trailers, the film will include an interesting wrinkle: The Maze Runner star Dylan O'Brien is the voice of the titular, heroic autobot.
"But Empire," we hear you exclaim, "Bumblebee in the Michael Bay franchise has only ever been depicted with a damaged voice system, communicating solely through radio audio and songs!" And you'd be right. But a lot of things are changing – nay, transforming – for this '80s set prequel, and giving full voice to the Bee is one of them. "Since we were approaching this as an origin story, we felt that it was appropriate that you got to hear his voice," producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura tells IGN. "That’s the simple logic that we employed. The longer term implication of that is different. But the short-term implication of that is, since we really are resetting the mythology, essentially, of who Bumblebee is. And so, that seemed to us to be the appropriate, to get the chance to hear what he sounds like."
Longer-term sounds like there could be some retconning going on in future, with Bumblebee potentially speaking in future films, including if the producers decide to sidestep the existing continuity.
As for why they hired O'Brien? "Dylan has that great quality in his voice of youthful exuberance, and also sort of trustworthiness," the producer says. "I think those are the two qualities that we wanted Bumblebee to have." For more go to IGN's story.
With Travis Knight in the director's chair, Bumblebee also stars Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena and Peter Cullen, once again the voice of Optimus Prime. It'll be out on 26 December. Happy Autoboxing Day!
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