Warning: The following contains spoilers for “Transformers One.”
With “Transformers One” opening in theaters Friday to rave reviews and potential awards, director Josh Cooley is already hinting at a possible trilogy: “There’s definitely more story to tell,” he told TheWrap.
“We’re used to the story starting after the planet dies and they go to Earth, so there’s a whole war going on when they split up and when they leave the planet,” Cooley said. “So there’s a lot of story there and it can be a lot of fun.”
The film is the first animated Transformers project to hit theaters in nearly 40 years. Cooley also shared the visual design for the Transformers homeworld of Cybertron, which was inspired by Art Deco architecture. “I love the design of G1 and I know the city has to be huge, but it’s all going well, Cybertron isn’t falling apart at this point, nothing is dying, so that got me thinking about Art Deco,” the filmmaker said.
He added: “It was after the Depression when everything was going well and they were building these huge buildings in New York and Chicago all over the place that were just about wealth. And that was the inspiration for Iacon (the capital of Cybertron) itself and it just makes you feel like everything is celebrated.”
Cooley’s vision for the film focused more on the relationship between Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) and their evolution from friends to enemies.
“What drew me to this reality was being in a real relationship between two characters and seeing that relationship fall apart,” he said. “If you go to Cain and Abel or ‘Ben Hur,’ ‘The Ten Commandments,’ it just has an epic, fantastical story, and that will be great for ‘Transformers’ to provide a more emotional connection.”
Cooley also emphasized his desire to add depth to the characters, going beyond the simple good versus evil dynamic, explaining, “I wanted to give these characters more depth than just, ‘I’m a good guy,’ ‘I’m a bad guy,’ but really bring a little bit more depth to their character and show why they were friends and why they broke up, so that the audience really understands the situation, not just because one is good, the other is bad.”
Fans of the 1986 animated film Transformers One will be pleased to know that there are several Easter eggs referencing the OG classic. Cooley revealed a similar clue: “When you saw the Sentinel die, he turned around; he was completely fed up, a little bit, just like Optimus did in that movie… so did Orion Pax at one point when he fell, he goes completely black and white.
Reflecting on the enduring appeal of the “Transformers” franchise, Cooley noted how the Autobots and Decepticons have managed to remain in the zeitgeist over the past four decades. “I can’t think of many franchises that have that kind of history, so I really think there are fans who really love it, but it has real staying power.”
Transformers One is now in theaters.
