Bumblebee

It doesn’t transform, but it can roll out.

The new prequel is a breath of fresh air for the stale series.

Optimus Prime and a handful of Autobots and Decepticons are back in the new trailer for the ‘Transformers’ spinoff.

Hailee Steinfeld meets Bumblebee in the first trailer for the ‘Transformers’ spinoff.

Paramount’s ‘Transformers’ series is in the process of getting a major rebrand.

Now that Mark Wahlberg is out, the Transformers franchise is in dire need of another white male actor who has giant biceps, hails from Massachusetts and whose former career path involved rapping while shirtless. Enter John Cena, who has officially signed on for a lead role in the ’80s-set Transformers spinoff Bumblebee, which has additionally been pushed back from its previous summer 2018 release date and given a more festive December date.

Paramount’s Transformers spinoff Bumblebee is on the fast track, and quickly gathering cast members. After Hailee Steinfeld, another rising star has just joined the Transformers family: Jorge Lendeborg Jr. has been cast as the male counterpart to Steinfeld’s heroine in the movie.

Transformers: The Last Knight probably won’t be the end of Michael Bay’s Transformers movies, and the series seems to be expanding, whether the people want it to or not. There’s a planned Bumblebee spinoff in the works, which will focus on the smallest of the Autobots before the events of the main Transformers series. Since we’re going back into the past with this, and since Hasbro’s Transformers toys first hit the market 30 years ago, it seems fitting that the Bumblebee movie is going to be set in the 1980s.

While fans might be a little cynical about a Transformers multi-verse, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about their planned Bumblebee prequel. For one, Christina Hodson’s script has widely been praised as a standout in the franchise thus far. For two, the film will serve as the live-action directorial debut of Kubo and the Two Strings director Travis Knight, whose visuals in that film  —  and whose overall body of work with animation studio Lakia  —  make him a name to remember in future projects. Oh, and there’s this small little tidbit: the movie may now be adding a pretty talented star as its (human) lead.

With Transformers: The Last Knight, Michael Bay has created an alternate universe in which giant robots in disguise have been helping humanity through every historical conflict you can imagine. In a video yesterday, Anthony Hopkins’ voiceover explained that they’ve “been here forever,” but exactly WHY Earth is so important to them remains a mystery. The Last Knight will explore a little of that history, from King Arthur to Japanese samurai, while also making a quick pit stop in the 1940s.

This video makes us feel happy, because it is so supremely awesome. It also makes us feel sad because we will probably never get a high five from a bumblebee. We can't even get high fives from our "friends."