Our crew rolls deep: Meet the voice cast behind the characters in “Transformers One”

“This was a lot of fun,” said Chris Hemsworth in the new “Cast Featurette” for Transformers One. In the first-ever fully CG-animated Transformers movie, Hemsworth voices Orion Pax.

Brian Tyree Henry, who voices D-16, teased: “We get to see all these characters be elevated in a completely different way than we’ve seen them before.”

Meet the rest of the voice cast in the new featurette here: https://youtu.be/8MLS-aGiohE

Transformers One is the untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever. Besides Hemsworth and Henry, Transformers One features a star-studded voice cast, including Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, with Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm.

Get to know the characters you’ll meet when you watch Transformers One, in cinemas September 18.

ORION PAX (Chris Hemsworth)

ORION PAX is a dreamer, a young bot not yet the OPTIMUS PRIME he is one day destined to become. Rebellious and restless, he’s charitable to a fault and sees the best in everyone, including his enemies. But he is also really, really not great at playing by Cybertron’s strict rules. Getting into endless scrapes with his best friend, D-16, Orion Pax may be charming and cheeky, but he is also curious about the history of Cybertron – and may well prove critical to their future. “There’s gotta be something more I can do,” he tells D-16. “I can feel it.”

D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry)

In some ways, D-16 is the most trusting of all the young Transformers – a rule-follower who accepts his lot in life. On the other hand, he is destined to become MEGATRON – the most ruthless of all Transformers. For now, though, D-16 is aware of his limitations – like all Iacon’s miners, he doesn’t yet possess a Transformer cog that’ll let him take on another form – and idolizes his leader, Sentinel Prime. He has a deep sense of principle and belief that crimes should be punished, but is also best friends with Orion Pax, a constant source of trouble. “If we survive this,” D-16 tells him, “I’m going to kill you!”

B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key)

B-127 is a loyal, excitable motormouth who is an endless source of joy and fun. While he may seem naïve and overly optimistic, B-127 has a resilience that means he can cope with pretty much anything and is the glue holding things together when friend-groups start to fracture. One thing you should know about B-127, he would like for you to call him “B” although he is working on a few other names for himself. His current favorite? “BADASSATRON.”

ELITA-1 (Scarlett Johansson)

Incredibly capable and a natural-born leader, ELITA-1 is hungry for the recognition she deserves. In her day job, as one of the upper management staff overseeing the unruly miners in the Energon mines – not least rogue tearaway Orion Pax, who she calls, “Mr. Zero-Seconds-Since-My-Last-Accident” and D-16 – she exudes a ruthless efficiency and competence. But there’s more to this ambitious careerist than meets the eye. Supremely agile in combat, and with a wicked sense of humor lurking under that starchy exterior, ELITA-1 is possessed of a goal and drive to go somewhere – she’s just not quite sure where exactly that is yet.

SENTINEL PRIME (Jon Hamm)

After single-handedly thwarting the Quintesson threat after the Primes fell, SENTINEL PRIME is the “Hero of Cybertron.” Not only is he the leader of all the Transformers, SENTINEL is also quite the consummate showman, boasting a presence, intelligence and charisma that are almost as awe-inspiring as the lightning-fast boot jets that propel him gallantly through the air. A commanding figure and always undeniably cool under fire, as D-16 always says, “Just trust in SENTINEL PRIME.”

ALPHA TRION (Laurence Fishburne)

As the Transformers archives will tell you, at the dawn of their time, there was “our gracious and powerful creator, Primus.” To protect the universe he’d created, Primus sacrificed his life force, transforming himself into the planet Cybertron. And, from within its core, he birthed the first Transformers, known as the Primes – the most powerful warriors of them all. ALPHA TRION is a brave, noble and wise ancestor who has defended Cybertron from the dastardly Quintessons for thousands of cycles.

DARKWING (Isaac C. Singleton Jr.)

An imposing bot, DARKWING runs the Energon mining operation on Cybertron with a massive metal fist, treating its workers, including Orion Pax and D-16, like they’re nothing. But if he works them hard in the mines, DARKWING might yet find our two young heroes working him hard in the other place he loves to dominate: the track. With the famous Iacon 5000 race across the city looming, this aggressive competitor is going to have to use all his dirty tricks if he’s to outspeed and outmaneuver the newbies to the high-octane spectacle that Sentinel Prime says decides who is “truly more than meets the eye”.

AIRACHNID (Vanessa Liguori)

Able to transform into a lightning-fast drone and packed with an arsenal of razor-sharp arms she can use to spike her prey before dragging them up into the sky, AIRACHNID is the ultimate hunter. But what makes her truly terrifying are her creepy body movements and the multitude of inescapable eyes that click open and closed all around her head. Should you ever ask her to keep her eyes open, AIRACHNID will tell you coldly: “They always are.” Should you ever hear her laugh, meanwhile, you’ll never forget its terrifying timbre. This is one bot to avoid at all costs.

SHOCKWAVE (Jason Konopisos-Alvarez)

Already displaying some of the scientific smarts that will later come to define his work, SHOCKWAVE has a penchant for experimental weaponry, loving nothing more than to jab his captives with shock sticks to wake them up. Part of The High Guard, the most legendary warriors in all of Cybertron, he has absolutely no time for nonsense.

SOUNDWAVE (Jon Bailey)

Flanking Shockwave, SOUNDWAVE keeps all enemies in line for The High Guard, this pair of metallic muscle reporting to Starscream, the de facto boss of this decidedly rough interstellar crowd. Like Shockwave, SOUNDWAVE is able to fly and represents a formidable adversary in battles both in the air and on the ground. But by far his most impressive attributes include being able to scan electrical impulses to see if people are telling the truth, and the fact that he can decimate metal with his waves of sound. Hear them at your peril.

JAZZ (Evan Michael Lee)

He will later go on to become one of Optimus Prime’s true right-hand allies, but when we meet his youthful version in Transformers One, JAZZ is working alongside Orion Pax in a rather different capacity. Under Elita-1’s somewhat strict management style – “Ready positions, rust buckets,” she orders them, “Let’s go!” – Jazz, Pax and D-16 are just three of the young miners excavating Energon down in the Iacon mines – an arduous and physical daily task made all the more difficult and dangerous thanks to the power source’s seriously unstable and absolutely explosive nature.

STARSCREAM (Steve Buscemi)

As leader of the banished Cybertronian High Guard, STARSCREAM sits proudly on his throne and lives by a simple mantra: “All that counts is the strength of one bot over another!” These are prophetic words from Megatron’s eventual, and most opportunistic, lieutenant. As ruthless a fighter STARSCREAM is on land, his aerial combat skills are tough to match – even on Cybertron.

Transformers One rolls out into Philippine cinemas on September 18.

Photos from Paramount Pictures