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Transformers News: Anthony Hopkins Onboard and a New Look for Bumblebee

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Transformers

by: S. Scott Stanikmas – Senior Staff Writer

News on Transformers: The Last Knight has been coming hot and heavy these last few weeks. From the revelation that Josh Duhamel is coming back to the announcement that Megatron will be the main villain (AGAIN!) we’ve been inundated with updates about one of Paramount’s biggest franchises that the studio is looking to turn around in the eyes of the critics and the fans.

Two significant pieces of news came out this past weekend that bear commenting on. One is the updated look of a fan favorite character while the other involves an iconic actor joining the series.

Let’s talk about the updated look of Bumblebee first. It caused quite a stir when the first Transformers film came out and ‘Bee wasn’t a classic VW Beetle. I understood why – the car, while a classic, is supremely outdated for what the film calls for. At least we got a nod to it when Bumblebee whacked an old yellow Bug with his door when Sam Witwicky was trying to buy a car.

With a great working relationship with General Motors, Paramount has once again gotten the newest model for Bumblebee to transform into. Michael Bay recently showed us what Bumblebee’s vehicular version will look like on Twitter (which will be a 2016 Chevy Camaro):

Slick design. I’m sure we can expect a few new models to wind up in the final film when it hits theaters, maybe in the form of some new characters on both the Autobots and Decepticons sides.

Finally we look at the  newest cast addition – and in my opinion this is a major step back for this actor.

Twitter once again dropped the news (on the official Transformers account) that Sir Anthony Hopkins has signed on for an as yet undisclosed role. That’s right, an actual knight has joined the cast of The Last Knight.

I’d like to think Hopkins was above films like this. Sure he’s been in his fair share of bad films and isn’t against doing some big budget blockbuster fare (as is evidenced by his role of Odin in Marvel Studio’s Thor films) but the last few Transformers films have been downright terrible. Even if Paramount is trying to turn the Bots around AND are offering him a boatload of cash it still feels wrong to see Hopkins’ name on a project like this.

But I could be wrong and this will be the film that gets audiences and critics alike behind the Robots In Disguise once again. We’ll find out when Transformers: The Last Knight rolls into theaters June 23, 2017.