Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for Transformers One!
With the movie starting with him on the morally good side of things, Josh Cooley breaks down how Transformers One explores Megatron’s villainous origins. The latest installment in the long-running franchise serves as an animated prequel, exploring the early relationship between Megatron, originally named D-16, and Optimus Prime, first known as Orion Pax, as they become friends and learn about a dark secret on Cybertron that will change their lives and planet forever. Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry lead the Transformers One cast as Optimus and Cybertron alongside Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm.
During a recent interview with Variety in honor of the movie’s release, Cooley opened up about Megatron’s villainous origin in Transformers One. The director began by describing that the key to tapping into this origin was to really focus on his relationship with Optimus, as their “conflict” is vital to his turn toward the morally dark side:
The thing that I really hung my hat on was the relationship between the two of them and making sure that it wasn’t, “I don’t like you anymore, I hate you, now we’re going to fight.” [The conflict comes] because they believe they both have the right answer to this problem.
The other major key to crafting a meaningful origin story for Megatron’s villainy was to create “the ultimate bad guy” in Jon Hamm’s Sentinel Prime, as the more evil they made him, the easier it could be for audiences to “sympathize more” with Megatron, and “understand where he’s coming from“:
And the more that the ultimate bad guy is bad, that makes you sympathize more with Megatron because you understand where he’s coming from. And from the very beginning, I really wanted to make him somebody who you could understand where he’s coming from, so you feel that relationship more, and it’s not just somebody who turns evil to turn evil.
What Transformers One’s Megatron Origins Mean
Cooley’s Trilogy Plans May Deliver Heartbreaking Character Moments
The initial announcement that the prequel would see the characters as friends left some franchise fans curious as to how Transformers One would handle Megatron’s alienation from Optimus and his descent into becoming the leader of the Decepticons. As seen in the film, their division comes when Optimus attempts to stop D-16 from executing Sentinel Prime for his corrupt way of ruling over Iacon and keeping Energon from everyone, with the latter having a very different plan for saving the planet.
With Cooley having recently teased plans for the animated prequel movie to expand into a trilogy, it seems likely that this will only be the start of Megatron’s turn to villainy. This is especially true as Transformers One‘s ending saw the character exiled along with Cyberton’s High Guard, of whom Starscream is a part, and Megatron dub them the Decepticons, with plans to get revenge on his former friend and regain control of Cybertron.
This could, in turn, lead to some devastating character moments not only for Optimus and Megatron, but also for the other characters introduced in Transformers One going into the next two movies. If Cooley’s plans to explore the War for Cybertron is saved for the final installment in his trilogy, this could lead to certain character deaths at the hands of Megatron, also hammering home his efforts to make the character a more sympathetic figure than seen in previous Transformers media.
The Transformers Franchise Is In Good Hands
The Transformers franchise has endured an infamously troubled run on the big screen prior to the animated prequel, with Michael Bay’s movies, in particular, giving seemingly little care to character development for its humans or robots, and instead building bridges between its various set pieces. As such, Cooley’s deeper thoughts about Optimus and Megatron prove to me the franchise is in the right hands. The latter character, in particular, has often been given very little nuance in prior Transformers movies, always acting as somewhat of a cartoonish villain.
By offering audiences a means to feel sympathy for Megatron both in Transformers One and beyond, it could even help influence all live-action adaptations going forward that include the character. Though there’s certainly plenty of entertainment to be had from large-scale fights between the Autobots and Decepticons, giving viewers a reason to actually care about the villain’s motivations could create more meaningful stories going forward.
Source: Variety
