With Paramount Pictures hoping the upcoming Bumblebee movie does enough to wash away bad memories from the disappointing Transformers: The Last Knight, one positive sign has emerged in the form of a smaller cast, with director Travis Knight reducing the number of Decepticons featured in Transformers spinoff.
Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura believes the move plays to the strengths of screenwriter Christina Hodson’s script, in order to provide better character development between the titular Autobot and Hailee Steinfeld’s Charlie, the young girl who finds the robot stranded on Earth.
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“[Hodson] wrote a really beautiful script that really played into the emotion of the relationship of the two,” di Bonaventura told Entertainment Weekly. “So looking at the movie from that perspective, we thought, we don’t want to overwhelm one Autobot with too many Decepticons. So he has three primary antagonists.”
While Bumblebee’s enemies remain a mystery, one was possibly revealed in the trailer, with Starscream, Megatron’s second-in-command, as the leading suspect.
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This comes as good news for fans who grew tired of Michael Bay’s movies constantly packing in new robots-in-disguise, which didn’t allow the audience to establish any real emotional connection to them. As it stands, Bumblebee’s streamlined approach could well be the one to reignite faith in the franchise, something the studio hopes will inspire other spinoffs as well.
Directed by Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings) from a script by Christina Hodson, Bumblebee stars Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Pamela Adlon, Jason Drucker, Abby Quinn, Rachel Crow, Ricardo Hoyos and Gracie Dzienny. The film is scheduled for release on Dec. 21.