Transformers One is something of a miracle. It’s a fantastic movie about friendship gone wrong, told on a completely alien planet made up of metal robots. Of course, those robots just so happen to be Transformers, the popular Hasbro toy brand who’ve been a part of the zeitgeist for almost 50 years. So to take something that recognizable and with it make an emotional, relatable story accessible to fans and non-fans alike is pretty unique.
Director Josh Cooley knew that was possible right from the start. The Oscar-winning director of Toy Story 4 sat down and read a script for a Transformers movie that told the never-before-seen story of how its two most famous characters, Optimus Prime and Megatron, went from best friends to mortal enemies. He knew he wanted to see that movie, so he decided to make it. And now that it’s coming, he spoke to io9 about its inception, deep franchise lore, working in recognizable characters, Easter eggs, and various other versions of the movie.
Germain Lussier, io9: Let’s start at the beginning. How did you come on board this project? Because I know, obviously, you were at Pixar at about the same time Hasbro was doing these Transformers writers’ rooms where all these different ideas got batted about, and this movie, in particular, is something that Lorenzo [di Bonaventura, producer] had been talking about for almost a decade. So how did you yourself come onto this project?
Josh Cooley: Yeah. So, I read the script first. That was the first thing that I did, was I read that, and what grabbed my attention was the fact that it was an origin story and it was about this friendship falling apart. Which, I thought was like, “Man, if I could tell that story with just Transformers? That would be really amazing.” And just the idea behind it. I love sci-fi, so just this movie being not on Earth and no humans, just was really intriguing to me. And also what the design of the world could possibly look like. A transforming metal planet that could be really, really great, especially in CG with everything that global illumination and lighting and ILM and all that got involved. It made me want to see the movie and then I was like, well, now I want to make it. So, that’s how I initially got involved, was just by reading the script and just seeing the overall concept, and then kind of took it from there and helped develop it more and more, and through the pandemic, actually.
io9: So I’m not a super hardcore Transformers fan, but I’m enough of a fan to know that this movie is giving me information I’ve never had before. Showing me things I’ve never seen before. Things I’ve only heard about. That Optimus Prime and Megatron were friends. What a fully functioning Cybertron was like. We always thought of Cybertron as a desolate wasteland they can’t go back to. So, tell me a little bit about the checks and balances dictating those things because, in the years and decades to come, this movie will define what the early days of Transformers is.
Cooley: Wow, if I had thought about that at the time, I would have put extra pressure on myself.
io9: [Laughs]
Cooley: Sorry, what was the first part of your question?
io9: You’re defining so much Transformers lore that we’ve never seen before. How do you make sure it fits in with the overall franchise?
Cooley: Well, there’s a lot of lore and Hasbro, they were there every step of the way to really help out with that, and any kind of questions I had. Because I’m the first to admit I don’t know everything. So, I wanted to make sure that when a superfan saw this, they went, “Yes, that is correct. This feels right.” And then also having it be accessible to somebody who has no idea what Transformers is. If they were to come in fresh off the street, it’s still accessible to them as well.
In a way, I kept thinking of it like the original Star Wars, just the very first one. If you’re a superfan, great, but also you can come into that completely cold and get thrown into the universe and understand the history and everything. So that was a tall order because there’s so much lore and sometimes we were really heavy on the lore. Other times we were really light on it. So just finding that balance, you know, while doing multiple screenings of it. And then just whatever was the best lore to support the relationship between Orion and D-16. That was always my center. It was like, okay, “These are awesome ideas, but is it actually supporting what the story needs to be told?”
io9: Yeah, and I’m guessing the original script had a lot of the skeleton for that stuff?
Cooley: I’d say overall, yeah. It was basically them going to find the Matrix and then becoming enemies at the end. It was very general. The tone was much different. The very first version of it was way more jokey. And that’s kind of what grabbed my attention first was like, “Oh, this is totally different from what I expected.” And ultimately that version just wasn’t right. It was like, “Oh, this just doesn’t feel like Transformers.” So it was finding that balance as well with the tone and making sure it’s not just completely dark, but also not just completely making fun of itself or anything like that.
io9: No, and I think you nailed that. But one of the things that made me nervous—well, nervous and excited, to see it, is it’s really the second Transformers animated feature film, right? And that first movie means so much to so many, myself included. So sort of what was your relationship with the 1986 movie and what kind of shadow did it cast over this?
Cooley: Well, I remember going to my friend’s seventh birthday party and we went and saw that movie. And so I was part of that generation that was scarred for quite a while. And was very confused. But the thing I really, I still remember was just having watched the original cartoon for so long on Saturday morning to then going to the movie theater and see the opening on the big screen with Unicron and just the scale of it all? That’s the thing I was like, “Oh, I want to bring that back.” I want that feeling of just that immense scale and even just pushing it to like, how can we go further than the live-action has even done in terms of scale and just make you feel as epic as humanly possible. Which is why it’s perfect for animation because animation allows you to exaggerate everything.
io9: Right. Yeah. I think Lorenzo said at Comic-Con this would be like a $500 million movie if you did it with the Michael Bay effects. But in there you did mention the theme song which is not in the movie. Was it ever in the movie, or did you kind of feel like it just hadn’t earned it yet because they hadn’t become those characters yet?
Cooley: We actually had that in the end credits. Like immediately, as soon as you slam to the title and then it started playing that theme song, and it didn’t feel right after a while. At first, it was just like, “Cool. Yes, this is great.” And then after a while, after talking to [composer] Brian Tyler about it, it was like it’s hitting the nostalgia so hard that it almost didn’t feel like the movie anymore, if that makes sense.
io9: Sure.
Cooley: And so Brian and I talked about it for a while because I was like, “I think it’s kind of working.” He’s like, “Let me try something.” And I think he had already had this figured out in his head, the way he was ending the score would naturally go into the credits. And so once I heard that, I was like, “Oh, yeah, That’s way more emotionally on target than just hearing something we’re familiar with.
io9: That’s interesting. On that same track, I’m curious about balancing new characters with old characters we know. Obviously Bumblebee, Optimus, and Megatron, we’re all very familiar with. And we get our not-yet-Decepticons in Starscream and Soundwave, but how far did you guys push it? Was there a number or a line or just a feel of like, “Oh, well, that character can be Jazz, but that character can’t be Hot Rod or whatever?” What was the line of introducing just enough characters that we know?
Cooley: Yeah, it’s funny. Maybe because of the 1986 movie, but Hot Rod was never in my mind ever because I was like, “That’s not right.” But I will say that the movie was made by a crew of fans. And so there are characters that they put in the background and have been brought forward that I didn’t even realize were designed as characters, if that makes sense. As you’re designing them the background characters are almost like Lego pieces where you put different heads on different bodies just to fill in a crowd. But some of them would be brought forward and be painted specific colors so that it represents a character that I didn’t know was such a big deal. But there was stuff—like Jazz, for example, has a pretty big role. It was important to have a relationship with a character that we know gets to be saved. Stuff like that. The winner of this race. Hasbro was like, “Oh, it’d be really great if it could be one of these characters, if you want to choose one of them,” which is kind of a random, something that you’re familiar with. So there were times when it was story-based. Other times it was just playing for the fun of it.
io9: Did that kind of carry over to the Easter eggs, too? Because like the first time I saw the movie when Alita says [MINOR SPOILER REDACTED], I think three of us laughed including me. And then I saw it in a bigger crowd of Transformers fans and half the people laughed. And I think the other half didn’t laugh because it happened so fast. So, a) that’s my favorite Easter egg, so I want to hear more about how that made it in and b) just kind of talk about Easter eggs overall. Were they just from animators or were they scripted?
Cooley: It was both. I actually wrote that line [SPOILER REDACTED] because I love that song.
io9: Me too.
Cooley: And we had this one version where D-16 and Orion were playing a video game, like a stand-up old arcade game—it was inspired to look like that, but a Cybertonian version of that. They’re playing that together like friends and the song, like the 8-bit song that’s playing is [SPOILER REDACTED]. But that scene got nixed. And so I wanted to work it in there somewhere. And I just felt like a natural place for it. But that was one where I’m like, “I just love that song and those lyrics and that’s Transformers to me so I want to get that in there.”
Other things, like something subtle—this one’s real subtle—is the throne that Starscream sits in when you first meet him? It’s shaped very similarly to the crown that he wears in the movie. But I didn’t pick up on that until my production designer Jason Scheier pointed that out. And I was like, “Oh, that’s great. That’s perfect.” So there are a lot of real subtle things. I’d say anything that’s dialogue-based was written in there. But I’d say sometimes we had our lead animator, Stephen King at ILM, he’s a major, major Transformers fan. And so I would let him at times I’d just say, look, fill in this area with crowds, but bring forward anybody you want to bring forward in terms of the color or anything. And so I’d let him cast the characters that are getting kind of front-row shots. And so that’s all his love going out. Yeah, that’s awesome.
io9: One other thing, because I’m a huge Pixar nerd. Love Toy Story 4. I know you worked on that with Andrew Stanton for a while. They just announced that he’s directing Toy Story 5. What is your level of knowledge of what that is going to be, and how excited are you to see what he finally does with the full Toy Story movie?
Cooley: I love Andrew. Great friends. I have no idea what he’s cooking up and I can’t wait to see it.
io9: There you go.
Cooley: Seriously, being outside, it’s like it was back before I started working there. So I’m excited. I don’t want to know anything. I’m going completely fresh.
Transformers One opens September 20. Check back after opening for some spoiler discussion with Cooley.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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