Paramount Shows First Footage for Bumblebee During CinemaCon

During Paramount’s block of time at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, the gathered crowd was treated (or subjected, however you want to look at it) to the first footage from their upcoming Transformers spin-off, Bumblebee.

On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small California beach town. Charlie, on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken.

Sort of a girl and her dog, but the dog is a robot. Hailee Steinfeld plays Charlie, John Cena is on board as the mysterious Agent Burns, while Peter Cullen returns to voice Optimus Prime.

Director Travis Knight may not have much in the way of feature films (his only previous directorial credit is on the animated feature Kubo And The Two Strings, so that’s impressive nonetheless) but we’re certainly curious to see what he brings to the franchise.

Knight said he wanted to make the film “like a Goonies, ET type adventure,” classic early Amblin titles.  He went on to say this is a “more intimate and personal coming of age story. I wanted to return to the essence of what made the Transformers series so impactful: character, story and explosions”

Steinfeld says Bumblebee will “go back in time and show where the character came from”. She also called the film an “incredible experience”, and that the relationship between ‘Bee and Charlie being authentic.

Lots of folks on twitter comparing the footage, which showed Steinfeld first meeting the yellow VW bug reminiscent of The Iron Giant, which is probably the bestest thing they could say to make me want to watch another Transformers movie.

We’re still hoping for a public trailer drop, we’ll let you know as soon as it does.  Bumblebee is expected to hit theaters on December 21st 2018.