Over the past 40 years, Hasbro’s Transformers brand has been a staple of toy departments worldwide, captivating and delighting new generations of kids through innovative toys backed by storytelling across every medium. “Generations” and “Legacy” are significant parts of the Transformers brand, with what is essentially a Transformers “multiverse” creating boundless possibilities. On Sept. 20, the timeline resets with Transformers One, the untold origin story of Optimus Prime (Orion Pax) and Megatron (D-16).

For the first-ever fully CG-animated Transformers movie, Hasbro and Paramount Animation turned to director Josh Cooley, a Pixar vet who co-wrote the screenplay for Inside Out and has some experience bringing toys to the big screen. When The Toy Book last caught up with Cooley, he was putting the finishing touches on Toy Story 4, which took home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards.

Now, he’s ready to unleash his take on Cybertron, a world of living metal in which the Autobots and Decepticons will rise, spinning a tale of self-discovery in which friends, “bonded like brothers,” change the fate of their home planet and evolve to lead warring factions.

“I watched the animated series growing up, and was the perfect age for that. Playing with the toys, I always remember that I had trouble transforming many of them. Some of the toys were pretty complex, and I was pretty young, so I had some of them sitting around kind of half-transformed,” Cooley says. “When we began working on Transformers One, I wanted to incorporate some of that play pattern into the story because we’re dealing with younger characters who are just learning to transform.”

Cooley’s childhood playtime inspired a sequence in which the core characters struggle with transformation while attempting to evade an advancing threat.

“You come into a Transformers movie expecting to see characters who can transform, and I don’t think we’ve ever seen a situation where they can’t. That came right out of my inability to read instructions correctly as a kid,” Cooley says with a laugh. That hands-on, “play” mentality further shaped the film when it came time to craft the action sequences. Rather than hire stunt performers in motion capture suits to assist animators in developing movements, Cooley and his team turned to toys to inspire transformation as part of combat.

“It was fun to hold a toy and question, ‘In what ways can we transform this so it becomes part of the fight?’ Optimus’s head goes into his body, so that’s the equivalent of a ‘duck’ for us. At that point, I felt like I was playing with my toys again, but this time on screen.”

Of course, Cooley wasn’t the only one enjoying the idea of reconnecting with the spirit of youth. The star-studded voice cast, including Chris Hemsworth (Orion Pax/Optimus Prime), Scarlett Johansson (Elita-1), Steve Buscemi (Starscream), Laurence Fishburne (Alpha Trion), and Jon Hamm (Sentinel Prime), was also psyched to get in on the action. Brian Tyree Henry (D-16/Megatron) and Keegan-Michael Key (B-127/Bumblebee) are big kids who brought their fandom with them to work.

“I am a Transformers child. I was one of those kids who came home after school and watched the show,” Key says. “My favorite Transformer was Soundwave because he was a cassette player in the 1980s, which I thought was so cool.”

Although he’s not a sweet ’80s boombox, there’s something relatable to Key’s character in Transformers One.

“So, B-127 is the technical name of the character I play who becomes Bumblebee. He works with junk, and what’s really appealing about him is that he has made a world for himself,” Key explains. “He always looks on the positive side of things. He’s got this really kind of indomitable spirit, and that’s one of his charming traits.”

While he’s voicing the character who becomes the leader of the Decepticons, Henry has a lot of love for a pair of supporting Autobots from the G1 series.

“I was always the guy who rooted for the underdog,” Henry explains. “Of course, Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Starscream are great, but there are two Transformers that people don’t really remember that I loved. One called Jazz, and what Jazz did was play music to knock his opponents off. But then there is this underdog, a Transformer named Ratchet. He screamed and threw things. He was incredibly argumentative. I felt like somebody saw into my soul with that one. Ratchet was great!”

Cooley notes that Transformers One is meant to be an epic tale that audiences haven’t seen, set millions of years before Earth even existed. “There was nothing to fall back on, so we couldn’t do a fish out of water story — there could be no Earth references. I wanted this to feel bigger than anything anyone could’ve imagined.”

The toy designers were part of the Hasbro brand team with which Cooley and his crew collaborated. Using the legendary Transformers “Brand Bible” and 40 years of reference material as a jumping-off point, artists from Paramount and ILM pushed the boundaries of character design while staying true to the essence of the characters’ familiarity.

“We would show things to Hasbro, and they would provide notes and suggestions that we would go back and forth with,” Cooley explains. “The sandbox of Transformers is so massive and spans so many versions and timelines, but telling this story felt wide open, which was refreshing.” And while the filmmakers leaned into storytelling first, a project rooted in toys needs some great toys to go with it.

“When you think about being ‘toyetic,’ to me, what makes a great design is when you want to own it as a toy — to have it in your collection, to put it on a shelf and look at it all day,” he says, noting that he’s started a modern Transformers collection of his own. “I just bought the Robosen Optimus Prime — it’s incredible!”

On the eve of Transformers One’s release, the cast and crew understand they’re securing a place in the brand’s storied history as it caps a milestone year. At the same time, the fruits of their labor will connect with past generations while welcoming a new generation of kids who will carry the Transformers brand into its next 40 years.

“I remember trading Transformers at school,” Henry recalls. “It was really cool as kids blending these cultures of automobile regalia and cartoons simultaneously. It says a lot that you can go to any country and say ‘Transformers,’ and they’ll understand. So that is a testament to [the brand], what the story means to people, and how ahead of its time it was.”

For Cooley, the focus on crafting a great film accessible to a broad audience has outweighed the thought of being part of history — at least for now.

“I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet, as we’re just wrapping up the final touches on the movie. It started to hit me when we saw the final sound mix and final picture cut together and screened in a Dolby theater. At that point, a film exists outside of the room and outside your mind. You think, ‘This is no longer something I’ve been working on; it exists on its own.’ Once the film is out there, I think the importance of the legacy and milestone will sink in.”

A version of this feature was originally published in The Toy Book’s 2024 LA Fall Toy Preview Issue. Click here to read the full issue! Want to receive The Toy Book in print? Click here for subscription options!