Keegan Michael Key Transformers He will appear in the Transformers universe as the voice of B-127 in the upcoming film “Transformers One,” which tells the origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron.
Distributed by Paramount Pictures, the highly anticipated film tells the story of two legendary characters who were once friends but now find themselves at odds with one another as Key’s character, B-127, teams up with Elita, voiced by Scarlett Johansson, in an effort to save a planet billions of years in the past where humanity exists.
B-127, a younger version of the iconic Bumblebee, has a very distinctive voice, and despite sounding computer-synthesized, Key said the voice is 100% his own.
“It’s my voice, but a higher, younger, more excited version of me,” Key said. “I’ve done a lot of voiceover work in my career where I’ve had to hide my voice and stop people from recognizing me, so that’s a compliment in itself. So yeah, I got to really express myself this time.”
Key said he worked closely with the director to create the character’s voice and ensure it sounded similar to his own.
The film also features some intense action scenes, and Key shared his approach to making those scenes sound realistic. Key said that when dubbing action scenes like fighting and running, he doesn’t just stand still in the booth. He actually acts out the movements, pretending to lift heavy weights and mimicking punches, to make the sound more realistic.
“You lose weight in the booth,” Key said.
In Transformers 1, Bumblebee’s origin story begins at the very bottom of the universe, working deep within the corporation. Despite such a lowly position, Bumblebee remains an optimistic character and makes the best out of every situation, which impressed Key.
“He makes the best of every situation, and he doesn’t necessarily know that he’s been fired from like 50 different jobs. He thinks, ‘I did a great job in this job, that’s why I got promoted,'” Key said.
In addition to his voice acting work in “Transformers One,” Key also mentioned that there are some fun Easter eggs in the film, paying homage to the famous Key & Peele sketch “Substitute Teacher.”
“I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but there’s a little homage to Transformers,” he said. “That’s all I’ll say.”
Transformers One will be in theaters on Friday, September 20th.
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