Sworn enemies Optimus Prime and Megatron once bonded like brothers, shows the recently dropped trailer of animated film Transformers One, promising a glimpse into the origin story of the Transformers.

While Chris Hemsworth has voiced Orion Pax before he was Optimus Prime, Brian Tyree Henry has lent his voice to D-16, before he became Optimus’ arch-nemesis, the blood-eyed Megatron, shows the three-minute-one-second-long trailer.

Set in the past of the Cybertronian homeworld, the trailer of the fully CG-animated prequel film starts off by introducing us to young versions of Optimus Prime and Megatron, exhausted with their lives as lowly worker bots. Unable to transform into anything, both Orion and D-16 are thrown into waste management by a supervising bot. The video then gives a glimpse of Optimus and Megatron’s origin stories, showing how the two worked their way up to the mysterious surface of Cybertron which remains restricted to young transformers.

After gaining weapons, the young transformers — Orion Pax (Hemsworth), D-16 (Henry), Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) and and B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key) — utilise their powers to the fullest. Soon, a battle breaks out between a plant-shaped villain and the transformers on their home planet, challenging their transformation skills which are still under development.

A prequel to the popular franchise, Transformers One also features Jon Hamm as Sentinel Prime and Laurence Fishburne as Alpha Trion.

The Transformers franchise began in 1986 with an animated movie. Following its success, filmmaker Michael Bay created a live-action series titled Transformers in 2007 starring Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. Amassing USD 700 million at the box office, Transformers went on to have five sequels and a spinoff. 2023’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts grossed USD 439 million at the global box office.

Toy Story 4 director Josh Cooley has helmed Transformers One, with Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari writing the screenplay.

Steven Spielberg, Brian Goldner, Brian Oliver, Bradley J. Fischer and Valerii An serve as the executive producers on the film. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Tom DeSanto, Don Murphy, Michael Bay, Mark Vahradian and Aaron Dem have also produced the film.

Transformers One is slated to release in theatres on September 20.